By jtmanley
A few weeks ago, it rained pretty heavily. Buenos Aires is hot and humid during the summer, but there is something about a rainy day that makes this exchange student a little bored. So how did I cheer myself up? I went to the mall. Yes, the mall.Did I buy anything? No, but it was pretty good to get a better understanding of one of Buenos Aires' neighborhoods instead of looking at grey skies from my ninth floor apartment!
Abasto is a section of the Balvanera neighborhood. One of the central attractions in this part of town is the Abasto de Buenos Aires, a former
wholesale fruit and produce market that operated for almost a century from 1890s to the 1980s, only to become a huge mall (called a shopping en castellano porteño) in the 1990s. The mall is home to many stores and a children's museum, yet what makes Abasto a unique landmark in Buenos Aires is its exterior and interior design. Abasto uses an Art Deco style that is not as common as the more ubiquitous French and Italian styles in many neighborhoods.
Outside of Abasto, there is a statue dedicated to the man who grew up in the neighborhood and became an icon for Argentina: Carlos Gardel. The famous tango singer who popularized the genre of music and dance abroad was known as the "morocho de Abasto," the dark-skinned man from Abasto. All around the neighborhood you can see a street that pays homage to him via bright and flashy portraits that prominently feature the singer's image and lyrics.
As I continue to explore the city, I'm understanding how history is all around me and expressed in different ways. The Abasto neighborhood does a great job at preserving a central landmark and its connection with its native son. I'm happy to live so close to it.