La Boca
Neighborhood
- Buenos Aires,
Argentina
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This neighborhood is maybe the most tourist in Buenos Aires, but
at the same time that it shows a face to who visits it, it has another that is the one of
being inhabited by a lot of people of few revenues that sometimes lives under quite
precarious residence conditions and characteristic of the environment, as the floods that
lately, thanks to important infrastructure works, have been able to clean up. Their name
is due to that is the mouth of the Riachuelo, place for the one that Pedro de Mendoza
entered in the first foundation, and that it was used as port during a lot of time. Their
activity was always linked to the port thing and the productive thing, being constituted
starting from last century an important labor population of immigrants especially from
Genova that spoke the xeneise dialect, word that is used now to define the inhabitants of
this neighborhood. These workers brought with them the new ideas socialists and anarchists
and they constituted to this neighborhood in one of the centers of the social fight,
obtaining this jurisdiction the first socialist representative in the Congress, Alfredo
Palacios.
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Caminito |
Old Ferry
bridge |
Boca Juniors Stadium |
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Caminito |
Caminito |
Artwork |
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The constructions are those of the typical houses with walls of foils, also
present in other port areas as Berisso, in La Plata that give to the neighborhood an
unique physiognomy in the city. The tourist artery of this neighborhood is the picturesque Caminito,
street of hardly 100 meters next to the coastal road, in which stand out the countless
colors of its constructions, with murals and reliefs. In this street they are a variety of
artists that offer their productions and shows. Other prominent points of the area are the
Foundación Proa, modern center of exhibitions, the Museum of fine arts of La Boca among
whose main characters is Benito Quinquela Martí, painter that carried out an enormous
work on the neighborhood, the Theater La Ribera, the market, with more than 100 years of
antiquity, and the Bridge Nicolás Avellaneda, with the two structures, the old one in
disuse and the later one, one beside the other one. The churches of the neighborhood are
"San Juan El Evangelista" and the Sanctuary "Nuestra Señora Madre de los
Emigrantes". There are some places of tango very exclusive and several Italian
taverns, especially on the street Necochea.
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A
characteristic element of the neighborhood is the Club Boca Juniors,
one of the most important of the country that possesses its stadium,
The Bombonera (chocolate box), with capacity it for more than 50.000
spectators. Boca Juniors is traditionally regarded as the club of
Argentina's working class, in contrast with the supposedly more upper-class
base of cross-town archrival Club Atlético River Plate. Boca Juniors
claims to be the club of "half plus one" (la mitad mas uno) of
Argentina's population, but a 2006 survey placed its following at 40%,still
the largest share. They have the highest number of fans, according to
their percentage in their country. |
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Museo de la Pasion
Boquense:
is an appropriate monument to the much idolized and famed, revered and
reviled Boca Juniors Soccer Team. Stop by this single-sport,
single-team hall of fame to check out their collection of Boca
paraphernalia, championship regalia and collection of player portraits.
Watch the short film, “Los idolos” (The Idols) in the
auditorium, sit down at one of their computers to check out stats
throughout the entire history of this great team, and even watch
historical game highlights from recordings going back as early as the
1940s.
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City of Buenos
Aires Map with
La Boca
Neighborhood
in red
Click
on the Image to enlarge |
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Fundacion Proa: This modern and contemporary art museum and
foundation hosts six temporary shows a year of adventurous work from
Argentina and abroad. They also hold art workshops, courses,
conferences and concerts
Vuelta de Rocha: These picturesque
city blocks run along the edge of the winding river inlet Riachuelo,
in the famous port neighborhood of La Boca. Genoese immigrants,
settling here in the early 1900s, built their housing on elevated
sidewalks as a precaution against flooding. Wrought iron balconies
characterize these dwellings, painted in spectacular colors,
originally from leftover paint from the dockyard ships. Together with
the port and the railroad, Vuelta de Rocha, comprises a unique
district, rich in immigrant history and heritage. |
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