Latin America: Bright Surface

The splendid city of Buenos Aires was thriving, cocky, getting richer by the minute. Busy factories billowed thick, black smoke. The Calle Florida, flashier than ever, glittered with the smart new shops of refugees. Pin-striped upper-crusters gathered at 8 p.m. in the Plaza Bar, sipped the abundant Scotch, ribbed the preposterous military Government and told with detailed animation whom they slept with the night before.

Avenida Corrientes, the local Broadway, was dimmed to save electricity; locomotives eked out their coal with wood and corn-on-the-cob. Excepting such details, the war had brought nothing but...

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