I posed that question to a cultural attaché in the Yankee Embassy this week. Her response was, “No, we have the Fourth of July instead”. At that point I could not resist asking her, “What day do you have between the 17th and the 19th?”
Today is Constitution Day which is a major national holiday here. In the Oriental Republic of Uruguay it is the 177th anniversary of the “swearing in” of the Constitution —“Jura de la Constitución de la República Oriental del Uruguay”.
The importance of this day is shown by the naming of major commercial streets after it, both here in Montevideo and other cities in the country. However, unlike the Anglo tradition, such streets are NOT called Constitution Avenue (as in Washington), but rather July 18th Avenue—Avenida dieciocho de Julio.
I would like to write more about the Uruguay Constitution, but will have to wait until my Spanish is better or I can corral a professor to explain its history and development to me. I can tell you this at least. It is an American-style constitution in that it provides for a President and not a prime minister, it has a two house legislature, and a Supreme court. In other ways it is very different in that Uruguay is basically a unitary government, not a federal one: the 19 departamentos have very limited devolved power.
The most important thing about today however, is that it is a holiday.
Uruguayans love their days off more than any other people I have ever known. If the weather is even half-decent they will be out and about. This point was driven home this morning when I looked out my window and saw an entire flotilla of sailboats moving out of the puertito (small port) despite the cloudy, gray, 8C (46F) weather. (When the weather is too bad for them, they party indoors—but they always party.)
Initially my stern Swiss-German genes were a bit taken aback by such frivolity, but I have come to realize that carpe diem applies to fun as well as to business. So, without any reservations whatsoever, I am happy to say to you:
¡Feliz dia de la Constitución!
