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Old San Telmo Cathedral
This church was built over a long period of time incorporating German, French, and Spanish architectural styles. Also note that behind the white stone is brick. Today was our second "Class on Wheels" and the focus was the growth of the tourism industry in Buenos Aires, so we travelled around BsAs for several hours visiting all the top tourist sites and learning about how the industry is growing. I have to admit it was nice to have the chance to go to all the touristy spots, like La Boca´s El Caminito, and not feel like tourist but rather a sociologist. I didn´t feel as guilty for taking pictures then.
Our first stop was a bookstore that was formally a theater built in 1910 during Argentina´s Golden Age. It was really pretty impressive to walk into a simple store front fascade and see a gigantic fresco on the rounded ceiling and a cafe behind the curtains on the stage.
After the bookstore we visited San Telmo, the area of town that used to be the most wealthy but during the early 1900s yellow fever epidemic and with the arrival of thousands of immigrants transitioned to the middle and lower-middle class neighboorhod it is today. The city of BsAs has decided to keep San Telmo as it was a century ago to be the part of the
La Boca
Corregated steel, wood, and ship paint have created one of the most exported images of Buenos Aires. city most connected to the colonial period. The streets are still coblestone and the buildings originals. We went into a large residencía where when the area was wealthy a single family lived, but as the neighborhood decaed became a communal living location so packed that children would sleep standing up on two ropes strung across the central courtyards. An interesting tidbit I learned in San Telmo today was that all of the buildings in BsAs that appear to be built of large stones in the Spanish and French styles are really brick buildings that were concreted or plastered over to give the fascade of being stone because stone was so expensive and had to be imported while brick abounds.
We then travelled to La Boca, a poor neighborhood along a small tributary river to Rio de la Plata. El Caminito is the area you have most likely seen on postcards from Buenos Aires... it is filled with corregated steel houses painted in bright colors. This area of BsAs was founded by the Genoans who came on the ships but was a very poor neighborhood of immigrants. Because the immigrants couldn´t all find residencías to live in, they built their
Ghost Kitty
Caught staring at me, this cemetary kitty doesn't seem to mind waltzing through Recoleta Cemetary's avenues. own homes out of wood and corregated steel and painted them with paints leftover in the ship yards, hence the bright colors. El Caminito has truly turned into a tourist street in a neighborhood where tourists wouldn´t want to be left alone. In La Boca I got followed around by two dock dogs, perhaps seeking refuge from the polluted river nearbye. They kept following me and even follwed me to the bus and sat outside as I got on. I should also mention that La Boca is the home of Tango.
Tango originated in La Boca because it was the mouth of the river and where all the port activity occured. Immigrants and sailors needed their women after long trips over the ocean and while staying in BsAs without their wives. Hence, many brothels were born along the river. As men waited for their turn with the women (there were actually white slaves in BsAs taken from Europe to be prostitutes, FYI), they began to dance the tango. It was macho, immitating knife fighting. Then women began dancing tango with men, and because the dance is so close, the catholic church considered it sinful. But the glory of ports meant that the men who learned the tango were transported to Paris and London where they then danced the tango and it became all the fad. Not until the elite in Europe accepted tango did it become accepted among the upperclass in Buenos Aires and become danced in public. Now you know how tango began...
Driving from La Boca to Recoleta, the now wealthy area of town, I passed my second Favella. Yesterday driving back from River Stadium I passed my first Favella, Vieja. The favella today was sandwiched between the dock where retired ships rot and the first Ford factory outside of the United States. It was really like nothing I had ever seen in America. Cardbord, particle board, tires, paper, anything and everything were piled in ways that somehow made homes. Stray dogs were running through the town and piles of garbage were everywhere.
Recoleta was a different picture. This neighborhood (Barrio) houses the wealthiest cemetary in BsAs where all the famous politicians and military commanders are burried. Eva Peron is also burried among the ranks, much to the dismay of the wealthy. In the cemetary tons of cats were making their homes, but they looked like well fed gatitos who didn´t at all mind lounging on the marble infront of various sepulchars. In Recoleta we also visited Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires where all the famous writers and politicians sat and discussed life over Cafe cortados and bread.
Our last stop was a home built by an Argentine-Chilean family in the early 1900s. It was an odd amalgom of architectural styles that in many ways is reflective of Buenos Aires as a whole. I don´t think I was ever wealthy in a former life, because I don´t think i´ve ever been more uncomfortable by a home.
After class today we went searching for warm clothes for the soccer game tomorrow night, but I couldnt´find anything with sleeves long enough and couldn´t find any scarves I liked enough to justify buying. I did, however, buy 2 cds: the Gotan Project and Bajofondo Tango. Cool stuff.
I´m contemplating getting a cup of Vino Tinto tonight... We´ll see what café I end up at!
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