I love Argentina like few countries. And the Argentines, who are cultured, intelligent and creative people. It is enough to see Argentine cinema and theatre, its music, contemporary art, literature, architecture... Buenos Aires is a European capital. The Argentine countryside, from the vast plains to the Andes, feeds the best livestock in the world. Most of the best meat restaurants in the world are Argentinian.
When I couldn't find well-trained advertising creatives here, I brought them from Argentina. They even called me the Argentine ambassador, because of the amount of paperwork my agency had to do so that advertisers of that nationality could work here. I also worked in Buenos Aires for a month and a half in 1968 and almost two months in 1969, at the height of the Filomatic razor blade campaign, when Miguel Gila lived there, where I shot twenty commercials.
That's why I'm crying for you now, Argentina, because I'm afraid that some of your values will be lost. It is true that the new president has been elected mostly by the people, but I would have liked him to carry a white dove in his hands instead of a mechanical saw, which has been used so much in horror films.
I am not one to criticize what more than twelve million people have voted for, but in history some unspeakable people were voted for by the people. It is clear that democracy is that and it is the best political system I know, but an opposition that controls the government is also a democracy. And I think that now, in Argentina, it is essential.
It cannot be that a country that welcomed so many Spaniards and Italians is a place where the Argentinians who live here now think they can no longer return. But I may be wrong, and behind this populist figure is a good professional, who will know how to surround himself with honest and intelligent people and who will save Argentina from the terrible economic situation. If so, I will rectify. If not, I will continue to cry for Argentina.
