Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children May-June 2015

1 Argentina’s national sport once involved a duck! Pato, a game played on horseback, now uses a leather ball with six handles in place of a duck. Invented by the horsemen who once worked the Pampas, this game was declared the country’s national sport in 1953. 2 Spice is everything! Well, it is when it comes to the tasty treat called empanadas. he filling of these pies varies from region to region, but most chefs agree that the spices used are the secret to their deliciousness. 3 When is a waterfall not a waterfall? When it is actually 270 waterfalls! Iguazu Falls, located on the border with Brazil, is one of the most breathtaking sites in the world. In fact, when Eleanor Roosevelt first laid eyes on the falls, her…

Magellanic penguins live along the coastlines of South America, on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Also called Patagonian penguins, these seabirds breed in Argentina, Chile, and the alkland Islands. In winter, they migrate to the coast of rail, ruguay, and orthern Argentina. Like their polar relatives, Magellanic penguins have tightly packed feathers and fat to keep them insulated from the cold, but they also have adaptations to keep them cool. uring the heat of the Argentinian summer, they shed feathers around their bills. On hot days, the birds pant like dogs and stand with their flippers etended to catch a breee. o huddling together on barren ice lands for these penguins. heir nests are under the shade of bushes, or in cool burrows that they dig underground. Considered medium…

Far to the south lie the former stomping grounds of the largest dinosaurs on earth. Between the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, Argentina is home to many of the most important fossil sites in the world. Dinosaurs disappeared, but they seem to have left their mark of grandiosity, one that every inhabitant of this land continues to reach for. Argentines are known to strive for greatness. Their dreams and passion have unfortunately created an often violent society. But from that society many extraordinary and exceptional people were born. “God is an Argentine,” is a popular saying on the streets of Buenos Aires. Argentines consider themselves special people living in a very special country. Beautiful and proud, Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world, spreads from the Tropic of Cancer…

A popular figure in Argentine history, the gaucho was known as the cowboy of the Pampas. Although it is not very common to see gauchos these days, we can still celebrate them with traditional festivals, dances, and parades. Despite changes in rural areas in the last century, the people of the Pampas still pride themselves on honoring the values of the gauchos and keeping their customs alive in festivals. Some of the events that take place have evolved from the work of breaking and training horses. These practices have roots in the history of the Pampas, when the gaucho had to ride wild horses to tame them. Today’s gauchos ride their own horses for the contests. Horse and rider know each other very well and, in the arena, both man…

Street art is everywhere in Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires. Colorful murals adorn storefronts, offices, homes, factories, alleyways, bridges, and abandoned buildings. Artists can paint on any privately owned building as long as they receive permission from the building owner. Street art is sometimes referred to as graffiti art, but the reference to graffiti can be confusing. Graffiti is defined as “writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.” Graffiti is destructive, contributes to urban decay, and is frequently connected to gangs and criminal activity. Street art is just the opposite. It is meant to beautify communities and elicit favorable emotional responses in those who view it. Long before street art began appearing in Buenos Aires, political propaganda was…

Ask people what the national sport of Argentina is and they’ll probably say soccer. But that would be wrong. Turns out that a quirky sport called pato (pronounced PAH-TOE) claims that title. A wild cross between polo and basketball, pato has a fascinating history and continues to entertain sports-loving audiences to this day. How to Play Pato Before explaining pato’s rules, you might be curious where the name of the game comes from. After all, pato means “duck” in Spanish. In the past, this sport was played with a live duck carried in a leather basket with handles. Luckily that’s not the case any more. Today, players use a leather ball with six handles. The ball looks similar to a volleyball. (Oddly enough, this six-handled ball is also referred to…