The post by journalist and writer Jaime Bayly generated widespread rejection on social media and reignited the controversy over the tone used to describe a personal experience during a night walk in the city of Buenos Aires. This account, accompanied by a video that went viral quickly, was published after a trip to the cinema with his daughter in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta. In his narration, Bayly explained that the episode occurred during a recent visit to the Argentine capital and that the situation originated from a personal decision related to the chosen route. At that point in the story, he stated that he had not foreseen the road conditions and that the walk turned into a prolonged and unpleasant experience, although he clarified that it was not a security incident. The central axis of his defense was centered on a reiterated description of the atmosphere that, he claimed, was perceived on several blocks of the journey. In his final reflection, the writer expressed his regret for the trip and wondered what he was doing walking down a street that, in his perception, “stank of garbage, decomposition, and rot,” to attend a movie whose quality he did not know. The expressions used in the video and the general tone of the account provoked a rapid critical reaction from Argentine users, who questioned the implicit generalization about the city and the use of offensive qualifiers. He recounted that they had eaten little before starting the walk and that the described environment made them nauseous. In the video, he used explicit expressions to refer to what he described as a smell of garbage in a state of decomposition. The journalist compared that feeling with experiences lived in other major cities in the world and mentioned similar episodes that, he said, had occurred on hot summer nights in New York. According to his own testimony, he opted to deviate from the usual route along Alvear Avenue and take internal streets to reach the cinemas in the area, a choice he later harshly criticized. “Due to my mistake, due to my negligence, due to my idiocy,” the journalist expressed, while detailing that he suggested advancing along Montevideo Street and then turning onto Vicente López. Others pointed out that it was a specific experience presented in an exaggerated way, while some defended the journalist's right to narrate a personal experience. To date, Bayly has not made any clarifications or corrections to the content of the post. In his account, he stated that it was a “fetid, thick, and nauseating” smell that intensified due to the weather conditions. Bayly added that the situation had a physical impact on both him and his daughter. Bayly assured that the street had a “foul, repugnant” smell that extended from Montevideo to the vicinity of the cinemas. “We dragged ourselves to the cinema,” he stated, while acknowledging that, in the midst of that experience, he came to question his decision to travel to Argentina. The closing of the post was one of the points that generated the most repercussion. The publication, however, once again put the debate on the forefront about the impact of personal accounts from public figures when they describe cities or countries other than their own, and the limit between the individual experience and the general discredit.
