The grandeur and elegance of a bygone era live on in Buenos Aires
Tango, the dance that would come to embody Argentina, was born of sadness, squalor and poverty.
In the late 19th century, a flood of immigrants, mainly from Italy, settled in the working-class neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, especially in the port neighbourhood of La Boca, where they found work in the factories and the port.
They lived in crowded, squalid tenements called conventillos, often built with materials salvaged from the shipyards. Too poor to buy paint, residents used leftovers from the shipyards to brighten their living spaces, hence the patchwork of colours that characterise La Boca even today.
Entire families crowded into single rooms, sharing limited amenities. In close quarters, community spirit thrived, but so did disease and the many ills of cramped, unsanitary living.
Immigrants from different countries mingled, bringing their own cultural influences and, from these, the dance called tango was born.
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Sensual, intimate and sexually suggestive, it fused multiple cultural influences, including African rhythms and European and Argentine folk music. The bandoneón, a German accordion-type instrument, was central to the music.
Tango was a dance of the soulful, of sadness, passion and longing for home, family and acceptance. Associated with bordellos and conventillos, it was regarded as vulgar and coarse, and shunned by the Argentine elite. From the poor neighbourhoods, it spread to nearby areas and eventually reached Europe.
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Exotic and different, tango became a sensation. Parisian society was captivated, and as were the upper echelons of Europe. It travelled back across the Atlantic Ocean, where Argentine high circles, seeing how fashionable it had become, embraced it as its national dance.
The gilded age of tango was in the 1930s to the 1950s, until it was overtaken by newer forms of dance and rock ‘n’ roll music. In the 1980s, it experienced a rebirth. Although the dance evolved with new forms and styles, to this day it is identified closely with Argentina and is an art form celebrated in festivals and competitions.
La Boca, in the southern part of Buenos Aires, retains its gritty, working-class vibe, but sections have become tourist attractions. The stretch called “Caminito” celebrates its origins in houses painted in a pastiche of bright colours, with restaurants, art shops, cafés and stalls. Tango is woven into the fabric of La Boca, with music, dance schools and performances.
Also in La Boca, the yellow-and-blue, iconic La Bombonera Stadium is home to the Boca Juniors, one of the best-known South American football clubs. Football greats Diego Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Román Riquelme have played for the Boca Juniors, which has a devoted global fan base.
Adjacent to La Boca, the San Telmo neighbourhood is one of the oldest in Buenos Aires. It was once affluent, but a Yellow Fever epidemic in the late 19th century emptied it of the wealthy, who migrated elsewhere. The working class spilled over from La Boca into the San Telmo area, converting abandoned mansions into conventillos.
It is said that the new residents found old items discarded by the former inhabitants and began to sell them in the streets, starting the tradition that persists to this day of antique and curio shops in San Telmo and in the Sunday San Telmo street market, which spreads out across several streets in the neighbourhood.
With cobbled streets and 19th-century architecture, San Telmo preserves the colonial charm of Buenos Aires’ Belle Époque. The historic San Telmo Market building, housing cosy shops and restaurants, is the vibrant heart of the neighbourhood.
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When the wealthy residents of San Telmo fled the locality, many others relocated to the then-rural enclave of La Recoleta. There, they built grand mansions and cultivated an elegant, European-style township that endures to this day. Recoleta soon gained a reputation as the preferred address of Argentina’s elite and powerful.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the heyday of Argentina, when it was at the peak of its economic prowess. Once one of the wealthiest countries globally because of agricultural exports from its vast hinterland, it had a GDP per capita that rivalled that of the US. European culture and art earned Buenos Aires the sobriquet “Paris of South America”.
The oldest building in Recoleta is the 18th-century Baroque-style Recoleta Church built by the Franciscan Order. Beside it was the first public cemetery in the city.
The newly arrived wealthy and powerful began constructing elaborate family mausoleums, gradually transforming the cemetery into an ornate burial ground. Thus was born Recoleta Cemetery — one of the most famous and beautiful graveyards in the world.
Within, the cemetery is a planned mini-city with blocks segregated by narrow alleys lined with elaborate, ornate mausoleums in a variety of architectural styles: Gothic, Baroque, Art Deco and Art Nouveau, each worthy of pause and a little reflection. In the maze of tombs are buried presidents, military commanders, Nobel Prize winners, poets, artists, politicians and its most famous resident, Eva Perón.
On the subject of Evita, it must be said that the country’s First Lady (from 1946 to 1952) was as adored by the working class, whom she championed, as she was despised and loathed by the powerful oligarchy. She died in 1952 from cancer at the age of 33, and was interred in the Duarte family mausoleum in 1976 — 24 years after her death.
Her embalmed body was stolen and kept in a tomb in Milan under an assumed name for several years. It was only in 1971 that her remains were finally returned to Argentina. Her tomb continues to attract mementoes and flowers. In death, as in life, she continues to be an iconic figure.
In downtown Buenos Aires, a striking giant mural of Eva adorns the side of the Ministry of Health building. The black metal sculpture, in black outline, depicts two aspects of her: one compassionate, the other delivering a passionate speech.
The building is on the Avenida 9 de Julio, a main thoroughfare that is the widest avenue in the world, so wide it can accommodate more than a dozen traffic lanes, with dedicated bus lanes, and pedestrian crossings requiring several traffic lights to cross.
Standing at the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and another major road is the Buenos Aires Obelisk. Visible from afar, it has become a symbol of the city, serving as a focal point for events, demonstrations, public performances, parades, celebrations and concerts.
Avenida 9 de Julio is named after July 9, 1816 — the day Argentina declared independence from Spain. The path to independence began with the May Revolution of 1810, the first major step towards breaking colonial rule and commemorated in Buenos Aires’ most significant square, Plaza de Mayo.
In the heart of the city, Plaza de Mayo has borne witness to much of Argentinian history, with political demonstrations, major protests and speeches by presidents.
On one side of the plaza stands the whitewashed colonial-era Cabildo, the seat of government during Spanish colonial rule. Directly across from it is the Casa Rosada, the office of the president, from the balcony of which Argentine presidents have often addressed the country. Both Eva and Juan Domingo Perón addressed massive crowds from the Casa Rosada.
At the centre of the square stands Buenos Aires’ oldest national monument, Pirámide de Mayo. Here, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo hold silent vigils for the tens of thousands of children who “disappeared” during the Dirty War (1976 to 1983), a period of military dictatorship in Argentina. Dissidents were arrested, tortured and killed — often without any information given to their families.
The mothers and relatives of “the disappeared” began their silent marches in 1977, as public protests were prohibited. They adopted white headscarves bearing the names of their missing family members as their symbol. Although the dictatorship has ended, the marches continue every Thursday afternoon for justice for the “disappeared” and the persecution of the perpetrators.
White headscarves painted onto the flagstones around the Pirámide are a reminder of the dark period in Argentine history.
The large and elegant building from 1908 on the Avenida 9 de Julio is Teatro Colón, one of the most renowned opera houses in the world, notable for its rich history, architecture and near-perfect acoustics. It is a cultural icon, magnificent and opulent within, encapsulating the wealth and status of Buenos Aires in its heyday a hundred years ago.
To visit Buenos Aires is to step into a century-old opera house — an age of elegance and luxury, where the noisy modern world fades away and, under the warm theatre lights, only the drama on stage truly matters.
