Punta del Este

I spent most of my childhood and teenage holidays in Punta del Este. I came back during my studies, for summer work in restaurants and hotels. I know this place from both sides. There are luminous mornings, where childhood is king; there are dazzling nights where the possibilities of life rise up for youth. But in the gentleness of summer, Punta del Este subtly hides the real conflict of the modern world: the war of values. Here, casinos, luxury hotels and opulent houses stand just a few minutes from the austere and humble town of San Carlos. It’s a place where white aggressive vertical buildings fight against horizontal, wild, long sky-sand blue-yellow beaches or green-brown lands. I want to show the contrasts between the sensual excess of the kitsch flamboyant and sophisticated wealth with its modesty of so called good taste; between the wildness of nature and tamed spaces, between the sensuality of summer and the harshness of poverty. Punta del Este stands at the heart of western contradictions of the new globalization period. The 21st century of bling-bling without ethics; the 19th century of universality and ethical relation through education (free, secular and obligatory); the 20th century where the high class fluctuate between economical power and cultural prestige. There, centuries fight together through three characters - placed between city, countryside and sea: Zulema embraces the joy of the now, the desire, the irresponsible, sexy and sensual present of party times. Jimena shows the desire, the purity of recovering the lost integrity of her family that once sold its soul for money. Francisco, who wants to get out of his mediocrity, pursues and welcomes the coming future and changing times. It is only when you are forced to sacrifice something, like in wartimes, that you really know who you are. The only way to get close to your integrity is by getting into action, which means betraying something. There is no integrity in the pureness of non-action. Life is always about giving up something. Francisco is the only one who, by the end of the story, has a spontaneous ethic. He will bring the 19th century back into the new century. He is the root that we have lost along the way. Without a link to the past, we are nothing but victims of the new.