NIKE 公式オンラインストア

LA BOCA

PLACEText: Gisella Lifchitz

It was a sunny Sunday morning when I took a ride to La Boca, one of the most ancient and popular neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. I didn’t really know what to expect, because I used to go there as a child and it wasn’t a pretty landscape for me. In fact, I found it dirty, noisy, obscure.

That thought crossed my mind as I was arriving. But it soon disappeared in front of the surprisingly clear river. A romantic view suddenly surrounded me. There was a crowded row of twenty, maybe thirty people, painting their landscape, everyone standing in front of the river. I told to myself it wasn’t the place I had imagined. And that was a good thing.

La Boca has too much history. It’s situated at the border of the Riachuelo (a small river), and it was a refuge for the immigrants from Italy and Spain, who arrived between the years 1880 and 1930. That’s why the city port was established there, where the new argentine inhabitants worked.

The mixed cultures brought a particular new physiognomy to the neighborhood. The houses were then made with wood and metal sheet, and the walls were colored with the leftovers of paintings that they obtained at the port.

The beautiful bright colors are still the main characteristic of this place. Painters love it even more than photographers, and every Sunday many of them work and sell their works of art around Caminito (little road). Caminito is the most precious icon of La Boca, it concentrates the tourist movement and offers alternative “tango” shows with music and dance.

The particular thing about Caminito resides in the restored “conventillos”. Most of them have become open art galleries and renowned painters ateliers. The conventillos, almost a sign of poverty at the beginning of last century in Buenos Aires, were enormous houses with a room for each family. They were, of course, overcrowded. And also one of the places where tango was first heard and danced.

Read more ...

[Help wanted] Inviting volunteer staff / pro bono for contribution and translation. Please e-mail to us.
MoMA STORE