Every time I look around there seems to be more and more art galleries in San Telmo, which simply adds to the overall number of art galleries in Buenos Aires. The other day I went into an art gallery on Defensa that is worth visiting: galería de arte mercedes giachetti. It’s at Defensa 718 and is located in a very nice older building.

It’s a nice art gallery to visit and, if you go, be sure to take the staircase up to the first floor where the works by the art gallery owner Mercedes Giachetti are on display. Even if you don’t like contemporary art, visiting the upper floor of the art gallery is a nice chance to see inside one of the older buildings on Defensa.

Currently, there is a very good exhibition by Elvira Cosentino that runs till June 3, whose works I found rather appealing.

I also noticed on Sunday that Defensa is now closed as far south as Garay. There’s a bit more activity on Sundays now taking place on the block of Defensa between Cochabamba and Garay with several shops having opened recently and there’s even a tapas bar, plus one or two more restaurants. And, on the same block, is another cool gallery whose name, unfortunately I don’t remember. (I’ll have to go back and take note of it). Gee, in another year, Defensa probably will be closed all the way past Parque Lezama.

Oh, and I was mentioning art….if you’re interested in art in Argentina and Latin America then you certainly should be reading Arte al Dia.

Okay, here ends this public service announcement and free advertising …. but, hey, I know a lot of visitors to my blog are looking for that kind of thing … art galleries in San Telmo… so there you go.

María Kodama is a well-known figure among porteños but those not familiar with the life of Jorge Luis Borges, who died in 1986 at the age of 86, may be surprised to know that his widow is still very much alive.

A couple of weeks ago I was walking down calle Florida and just about to enter Galerías Pacifico when a woman passed me on the way out. I immediately recognized her as being María Kodama, or so I thought, since she has a very distinctive appearance. I hardly ever recognize anyone famous, always thinking that it’s someone else. I did wonder if there were other older porteña women who have adopted the distinctive Kodama hairstyle and if this was just a “look-alike”.

But, later as I was browsing in Galerías Pacifico, I saw her again. I guess she had decided to come back inside for more shopping. Actually, she appeared to be just window shopping, slowly moving among the stores. Not that I was stalking her or anything. I just kept on wondering if it was her or not. Guess I could have just approached her and asked, but I didn’t. However, after seeing the photos of her on the net, I’m positive that it was María Kodama.

María and Borges

Okay, now for those of you who have fallen behind on your biographical reading of Borges:

The daughter of a Japanese father, María Kodama is forty-five years younger than Borges. She was a student of his at the University of Buenos Aires during the 1960s and then joined a weekly class on Anglo-Saxon literature that Borges gave at the Biblioteca Nacional. Borges was blind by this point in his life and never saw Kodama with his own eyes. Yet, he became infatuated with her.

Borges, who lived most of his life as a bachelor and shared an apartment with his mother, became easily infatuated with women.

When his mother realized that her own health was failing, she arranged a marriage for her sixty-seven year old blind son, which turned out to be a disaster.

During this time, Borges was finally achieving the international fame that he had long sought. His friendship with the young María Kodama grew stronger and she eventually became his literary secretary and traveling companion on his many speaking trips abroad during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1985, a year before his death, Borges and Kodama finally were married with a Paraguayan marriage license, which was the common way to get around the lack of divorce in Argentine law. Borges had already named Kodama as the sole heir to his estate. Obviously one can imagine the controversy at the time about an elderly, blind, famous man marrying a woman 45 years younger. But, it seems that the estate has been well managed over the years.

A listing of the 30 Days with Borges series. Also, these and additional postings about Borges can be found under the Borges category.

• day 1: Introduction
• day 2: Alberto Manguel, reading and learning from Borges
• day 3: a top 10 list
• day 4: Shakespeare’s memory, everything and nothing
• day 5: phases in the writings of Borges
• day 6: a page to commemorate colonel Suarez, victor at Junin
• day 7: I am a blind man
• day 8: Happiness
• day 9: On Dante
• day 10: Francesca & Paolo
• day 11: a weary man’s utopia
• day 12: remorse
• day 13: tlon, uqbar, orbis tertius
• day 14: the circular ruins
• day 15: an argentine adrift on a sea of metaphysics
• day 16: alexandria, a.d. 641
• day 17: adrogue
• day 18: a dictionary of Borges
• day 19: the writing of the god
• day 20: the garden of forking paths
• day 21: the women of Borges
• day 22: feeling in death
• day 23: the cyclical night
• day 24: yesterdays
• day 25: immortality
• day 26: el zahir
• day 27: el aleph
• day 28: unknown street
• day 29: las calles
• day 30: el sur