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La Boca |
This neighborhood, of low lands and frequent floods in its beginnings, is located at the south of the city and was the first port the city had. The Italian immigration was strong in this area and stamped its characteristic hallmark between 1880 and 1930. The Italians came to the country looking for a better future for them and their families. La Boca is also called "La Piccola Italia", due to its Mediterranean architectonic style.
In the 19th century, it was an area of Genovese sailors and harbor workers settlement, giving origin to a fraternal society from where poets, musicians and painters emerged, among other distinguished characters. They spoke the Zeneixe dialect, which is a dialect of the Genovese, as if they were in their own land. They were very hard-working and fraternal people and created many community support institutions. Later, other immigrants came to the country to settle in this area, such as Greeks, Polish, English and Turks.
La Boca and its appearance, different from the other neighborhoods of the city, was characterized by low wood houses with zinc roofs and walls with exterior façades painted in different and varied colors that surely were the surplus of paints the sailors had in the ships.
In the beginning, the simple houses were built over piles with a porch to face the frequent floods of the period.
The multicolored restaurants are typical of this area, offering Italian food and seafood, with music and dancers. They are very frequented by tourists that visit the neighborhood.
In 1870, a decree was passed through which La Boca assumed the territorial category of neighborhood and, in 1882, a group of young enthusiasts, after a labor conflict, attempted to declare La Boca an independent republic. Finally, president Julio A. Roca mediated in the conflict, managing to establish the order again.
You will distinguish paved streets that are still preserved, the ship cemetery, the sand silos, naval stores and some coffee shops in Vuelta de Rocha in front of the Riachuelo, where you will see the old “Puente de la Boca” (La Boca’s bridge), which served as inspiration to the magnificent artist, Quinquela Martín, and other distinguished painters.
This colorful place is also venue of one of the most important and oldest football clubs of the country: Boca Juniors, founded in 1905. The mystic “Bombonera”, the club’s stadium, is situated in the junction of Brandsen and Del Valle Iberlucea streets. In the main hall of the sport complex you will find originals of the painter Quinquela Martín, prodigal son of the neighborhood.
Street Museum Caminito
Turned into a pedestrian precinct, Caminito is a short street. There are no doors, just some windows or balconies full of plants and clothes drying at the sun. Its walls, painted in different colors, remind us of Venice. There are all types of murals, ceramics and different ornaments.
An old train branch line was situated in this place and it stopped working in 1920. It turned into a deserted scrub until a neighbor suggested cleaning up the place and opening a path in order to shorten distances. This was the famous “Caminito” (little path) by which Juan de Dios Filiberto walked every day and then he wrote the famous tango song “Caminito”.
Nowadays, interpreters, accompanied by guitars and large accordions, sing the songs that made Carlos Gardel popular, while one or two couples dance a “milonga” for tourists and passers-by. Besides, from Mondays to Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm, it counts with the presence of plastic artists that show their works relating to tango and the neighborhood.
Proa Foundation
The Proa Foundation, situated in 1929 Pedro de Mendoza Av., is an old recycled house, where works of art and contemporary architecture by distinguished personalities are exhibited. You get an interesting panoramic view of the Riachuelo from the balcony of the second floor of the building. In the third floor there is a courtyard lit by natural light used as a reading room.
It is recommended to make a guided visit, from Tuesdays to Sundays from 11 am to 7 pm, but first you have to call this number: 4303-0909 to arrange the visit.
It is also recommended to walk by Rocha, Iberlucea del Valle and Garibaldi streets and Pedro de Mendoza Av., all located near Caminito, where you will see simple houses, colorful metal sheets and brick restaurants, ateliers, the narrow railroad of the old train and the port with its abandoned ships, giving a poetic air to the area.
Vuelta de Rocha
From this place you will get a wonderful harbor view of the Riachuelo, La Boca and Avellaneda Bridge, from where the neighborhood extended.
This spot used to be called “Plazoleta de los Suspiros” (Square of Sighs), because it was the place where the Genoese used to gather to remember their native land.
During the period of the independence from the Spanish crown, in Vuelta de Rocha, there used to be a naval squad commanded by Guillermo Brown. The name “Vuelta de Rocha” comes from Antonio Rocha’s surname, the person who owned these lands in 1636.
Museo de Bellas Artes de La Boca (La Boca Fine Arts Museum)
This museum, inaugurated in 1938, is located in 1835 Pedro de Mendoza Av. and, thanks to Benito Quinquela Martín, is devoted exclusively to Argentine painters and artists. He donated it with one condition: the works exhibited should represent Argentina’s reality. The museum offers a wide and interesting outlook of the national art from the first half of the 20th century.
In this museum, you will find the favorite work of Benito Quinquela Martín, painted in 1922 and named “Crepúsculo” (Twilight).
In 1929, when Quinquela Martín took his exhibition to Rome, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) made an offer with a blank check to buy the entire exhibition, but the Argentine painter never sold it.
In the museum, there are also works and sculptures by Victorica, Sívori, Spilimbergo, Lacámera, Sivori, Fader, De La Carcova, Forner, Castagnino, Yrurtia, Lagos, Briano and others.
It is interesting to see the hall in which you will find figureheads and ship models. In the fourth floor, you find intact Quinquela Martín’s house-studio, where he lived until he died in 1977.
The museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 am to 5:45 pm. The primary school “Pedro de Mendoza” and De la the Ribera Theater function in lands donated by the famous painter. The classrooms and the theater hall are decorated with murals done by the great painter.
Benito Quinquela Martín (1890-1977) was a distinguished painter, benefactor and neighbor of La Boca, despite his countless trips to the rest of the world. No doubt La Boca, with its riverside and port, inspired his art, as we can see in the oil painting in canvas from 1930 named “Barcas en el Riachuelo” (Boats in the Riachuelo), an oil painting in cartoon from 1958 named “Buques iluminados” (Lit boats) and also in an oil painting in canvas from 1958 named “Un Día de Trabajo” (A working day).
De la Ribera Theater
This theater, next to La Boca Fine Arts Museum, was built in 1971, in lands donated by Benito Quinquela Martín. By his suggestion, its seats were painted in different colors, which is a constant feature in his paintings and in the old neighborhood.
The old and new Avellaneda Bridge
The old iron bridge, built in 1908 and now fell into disuse, is a symbol of the old neighborhood. It used to be the transporter bridge at the beginnings of the decade and joined the city with Buenos Aires province through the Riachuelo. Then, in 1940, it was replaced by the new bridge.
The new bridge “Avellaneda” is called after the president Nicolás Avellaneda (1874-1880), who was the one to finish the Patagonian conquest (1879). Through the escalators of this modern bridge, you get an interesting panoramic view of La Boca.
The old bridge, which is part of Benito Quinquela Martín’s paintings, and the abandoned ships can be seen from the promenade that skirts round the Riachuelo, getting an interesting view of Vuelta de Rocha.
From the base of the old bridge “Avellaneda”, you can rent boats that take passengers from one to the other side of the Riachuelo.
This place was declared a National Historical Monument.
Boca Juniors Stadium
From 1940, this club hosts one of the most popular Argentine football teams. Its installations were remodeled in 1996.
The English sailors were the first ones who practiced football, turning later in one of the most popular sports of the country.
The stadium is known as “La Bombonera” due to the way in which the stands are arranged, in order to get a larger capacity in a reduced place.
It is a work by the Slovenian engineer Victor Sulcic and its official name is “Alberto José Armando Stadium”, in honor to the person who was president of the club twice times during the nineties.
It is situated in 805 Brandsen St., and if you want to get tickets to watch a game, it is highly recommended to buy stalls.
In 1997, surrounding the installations, the Argentine artist Rómulo Macció painted varied panels in commemoration to celebrations in La Boca, loyal to the Italian style. Among them, the most distinguished ones are: “El panel del bombero y la sirena de mar” (the firefighter and mermaid panel), in honor to the central office of the La Boca Volunteer Firefighters Association, situated in 567 Brandsen St.; “El panel de los artistas y amigos de Quinquela Martín” (Quinquela Martin’s artists and friends’ panel), the friends that used to gather in the meeting Quinquela Martín organized in his studio every Sunday from 1948 to 1972 (where he paid tribute to musicians and composers such as Alberto Ginastera, Mariano Mores and Francisco Canaro; actresses and actors such as Zully Moreno, Lola Membrives, Tita Merello and Luis Sandrini; painters such as Fortunato Lacámera and Raúl Soldi and to the doctor Raúl Matera); “el panel la Loba y los mellizos Rómulo y Remo” (the she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus panel),with the Italian immigrants that come to this American land with illusion and “el panel de la bandera en azul y oro del equipo de fútbol Boca” (the blue and gold flag of Boca Juniors football team panel), that, according to the history of the flag, took its colors when its creators, that inhabited the neighborhood, saw in the port a ship with a Swedish flag. In the club’s hall, there is a mural painted by Benito Quinquela Martín that alludes to how the flag was created.
Casa Amarilla (Yellow House)
This colorful building, placed in 400 Almirante Brown Av., is a replica of the residence where the English admiral Guillermo Brown lived. It was inaugurated in 1983 and it is now an institute of historic investigations. Guillermo Brown (1777-1857) was an Argentine naval officer of Irish origin who joined the 1810 revolutionary movement. He took part in the siege of Montevideo in Uruguay, that used to be named in that times “Banda Oriental”. He also supported the San Martín’s campaign in 1812. The admiral Guillermo Brown commanded the Argentine Navy representing the United Provinces during the war with the Brazilian Empire in 1826 and the French blockade to the River Plate in 1838. |
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