This weekend I went to visit a friend's art studio in La Boca, a neighborhood with history as complex and vibrant as it's architecture there. Beyond the world-class fútbol club and being the birthplace of Tango, La Boca is known as an immigrant neighborhood at the mouth of the Matanza River. In the late 1800's the British built the Buenos Aires port and other infrastructure throughout the city to make it easier to export Latin American goods back to England. In order to build the port and operate it later on, they imported labor from Europe (mostly Italy and Spain) and La Boca was soon flooded with people from Genoa, Italy.
As ships would come in and leave behind containers, the immigrants of the are would pull the containers apart and use the corrugated iron to build their homes, as well as other materials laying around the shipyard. They also used leftover paint to decorate the iron (which is why there are squares of different colors of paint they would use the leftovers, run out, then use other leftovers).
Many of colorful houses stand beside huge old factories and warehouses that reminiscent of the industrial era in which they were built. As families in the neighborhood started to become a little more wealthy, they would replace the iron with concrete, often in beautiful European
style. Many only had the money to alter the facade, so you have houses that look normal from the front, but use corrugated iron and other scraps for the rest of the house. At the turn of the century there were so many immigrants that people began to live together in tenement housing arrangements and you could find people cooking on the street and dancing Tango late into the afternoon.
It wasn't long before the area became more of a middle class area. However, during the Military dictatorship in the 70's and 80's, many wealthy families got pushed out so that they couldn't escape Argentina from the port. Today, La Boca remains a very unique and passionate representation of the city and its history. Some of the warehouses and factories are still operational, and local artists have taken over a few as their studios. Yesterday I had the best empanadas of my life in La Boca, a few blocks off the touristy area, where most foreigners are too afraid of getting robbed to wander. There was no menu in English, and no other foreigners. I've been instructed to keep the location a secret. La Boca's locals walk in the middle of the street as to show that they are from the neighborhood and can't be bothered by a sidewalk.
Through the various materials used in the construction of the neighborhood you can see the layers of the immigrant experience, and peel them back in a way. You can see a line on the wall that shows how high the water was during an old flood at my friend's studio. He is chips away at the paint used by the pasta making company that existed there for 60 years (he bought the place from the 94 year old owner a few years ago) to reveal the detail and style of the paint that existed even before, when it was a pharmacy. Every building has a story and the architecture provides clues. I walked along the empty sunday street, listening to the neighborhood and looking up at the changing styles of the buildings and imagine the magical place it must have been in the 20's. Que divino.
-Giordano