A Walk Through Three Neighborhoods

Seeing the architecture, the buildings, the plazas, and the monuments, that's cool. But sometimes you want to learn more. Yesterday we did that more. We took a walking tour of three of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires: San Telmo, Monserrat, and San Nicolas. I am glad we did, because there are some interesting historic periods we learned about.

Sculpture representing the workers found in Plazoleta Eva Peron

We met our guide at Plazoleta Eva Perón. It is a very small park located in the middle of a major street. It is named for Eva Perón, wife of Juan Perón, and the subject of the musical and movie Evita. She was very influential in her husband's government while she was alive. She was born to a poor family in rural Argentina but she became an actress and famous in Argentina. And eventually, she was First Lady and encouraged her husband in a lot of policies to help the underprivileged in the country. But she died young from cancer.

The busy road and this plazoleta were once part of the Rio de la Plata. Everywhere we were standing and all the buildings around us were built on land reclaimed from the "river". (Remember Rio de la Plata is not really very river like. More bay like or estuary like.) However, just across the busy street there begins a hill going up. That hill was the once bank or shore line of the Rio de la Plata. We walked up the hill into San Telmo.

This, the narrowest house in Buenos Aires, is found in San Telmo

San Telmo is, one could argue, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. But wait, while this is true, there is a caveat. It is the oldest neighborhood in the second Buenos Aires. This may sound strange, but Buenos Aires was founded twice.

It was first founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza. That Buenos Aires began slightly south of San Telmo. In essence, there was a good place to land ships called Lezama and that is where Mendoza landed and started his new "city." Mendoza, was pretty unhealthy and had to return to Spain. He appointed one of his men, Juan de Ayolas, as captain-general. Ayolas continued to sail up the Paraná River where he founded Asunción. In the meantime, the Spanish who stayed behind in Buenos Aires decided they were going to subjugate and tax the bejeebies out of the indigenous people. That didn't go over well, and pretty soon the Spanish were dead or they fled to Asunción.

The city was founded again in 1580 when a fort was built here. That Buenos Aires has remained and has grown to become the Buenos Aires of today. This time, the first neighborhood was San Telmo. One huge difference between old colonial neighborhoods and more modern ones is that the streets are narrow in comparison. They were built in a time well before cars. In some neighborhoods, those streets have been expanded. But not in San Telmo. There are house and buildings that would make it impossible. Not all of the buildings there today date back to colonial times. Some have been rebuilt. But there are a few. And one way you can tell is by looking at the corner of the building.

One thing Alrica noticed soon after we arrived in Buenos Aires was the diagonal cuts. Buildings on the corner of two streets don't come to a right angle. The streets meet at right angles, but the buildings all have a diagonal wall. Instead of two perpendicular walls meeting, it is like someone took scissors and snipped off the bit at the corner. Apparently, this is by law. In the 17th century there were problems with people or carts of goods crashing into each other because of poor sightlines. Also, bandits would wait at a corner at night and mug people. So the city required that all new construction have these diagonal corners. Only the oldest colonial buildings that have survived to this time still have perpendicular corners where the streets meet.

Let's get into one of the cool historical periods. It is amazing how much impact the Napoleonic Wars had on the independence movements of South America. I talked about this in regards to Brazilian independence in a previous post. But it also had its impacts felt in Argentina.

In the early 1800s, Napoleon is conquering a lot of Europe. Spain is his ally. And England is his great enemy. He really wants to conquer the British Isles, and while he has the best army in Europe, he just can't compete with the British in regards to the Navy. It is particularly hard to conquer an island when you can't get your troops there.

This becomes a trade problem from the British. Most of Europe is closed off to them, since it is mostly controlled by Napoleon and his allies. They do still have a good relationship with their ally, Portugal. But that's a smaller piece of the nearby market. The British decide they need to establish new trading partners in the New World. And bonus they think, "Wouldn't it be great to mess with Spanish colonies, since the Spanish are allied with Napoleon?" (I put that in double quotes, like an American, but since it was the British thinking it, maybe I should have used single quotes.)

So in 1806, the British attack and conquer Buenos Aires. The colonists are not happy about this. Their city was taken away from them and Spain didn't keep them safe. So they say, "Hey Spain, aren't you going to do something about this?" And Spain is like, "Little busy here. Leave a message at the beep and we'll get back to you when Europe is conquered."

This goes badly for Spain. The colonists band together, farmers and miners, sailors and merchants, and they manage to take back Buenos Aires. Not only that, a year later, the British send an even larger force and this ragtag band of colonists successfully defends their city and repels the British. But it also leads them to ask a question: Why are we paying taxes to Spain if Spain isn't doing anything for us except telling us who we cannot trade with. Why do we need them.

Incidentally, it went bad for Spain in another way too. Napoleon asked for permission to send his troops across Spain so he could conquer Portugal. Spain said yes, and, unsurprisingly, Napoleon betrayed them, conquered Spain, and put his brother on the Spanish throne.

See those black round spots, those are cannon fodder

In San Telmo, we saw the Santo Domingo Church. When the British conquered Buenos Aires, the bell towers of Santo Domingo were among the highest points in the entire city. So the British put their cannons up there and used it as a look out. The colonists had to attack the church. And there is still cannon shot in the left tower from that conflict over 200 years ago.

The statue over Belgrano's grave

In the courtyard of Santo Domingo there is a large statue that covers the burial place of Manuel Belgrano. Belgrano was important in Argentina's fight against Spain to earn their own independence. This all began soon after the trouble with the British. Belgrano was a statesman and also a general who fought led Argentina's troops. He's not considered the father of Argentina, that would be San Martin. Maybe he's the uncle of Argentina.

San Francisco Church

Right around the boundary between San Telmo and Montserrat is another church, San Francisco. The Franciscans were an order founded in Italy and the church has an Italian style. The statuary at the top is interesting. In the center you see Saint Francis with his arms wide over three people. The kneeling man is Christopher Columbus. Remember, Columbus sailed for Spain, but he was Italian by birth. In the statuary to the left of center, one of the figures is holding a book. That's Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy; another famous Italian.

Man in the center with the book, that's Dante

We revisited the Plaza de Mayo. Alrica and I had already been there, but we learned a lot of new things. We were not able to visit the Casa Rosada, because yesterday was the Pride March in Buenos Aires. I'll mention that more later. But we learned about the symbols in the Plaza. There is a central image with Athena at the top of it. Athena represents democracy and she is facing the Casa Rosada, which is the Presidential Palace. It is a reminder to Argentinian leaders that democracy is watching them.

Painted around the monument with Athena, there are images of white head scarves. Argentina, after its independence, has had a lot of military coups. Sometimes they have elected governments, sometimes they have military dictatorships. The last of these ended in 1983 and Argentina has been a democracy since. That military government was terrible and committed atrocious crimes. One such atrocity was their policy of disappearing people. They would just take people they didn't like and those people were never heard of again. This included women who had children or who were pregnant. Often these children were then re-familied. They were given to a family that the military government liked and those children were raised as though they had been born to that family, not knowing they had other mothers and families. Even today in Argentina, there are people who get genetic tests to find out if they really have some family that they or their parents were taken away from, and often they learn, yes, they do.

The white headscarf

The government didn't allow protest marches in the streets. So a group of women decided to protest, but not in the street. Instead, they all came to the Plaza de Mayo wearing white headscarves. White was chosen to represent the diapers of the babies being kidnapped by the government. These women marched in circles around the monument with Athena at the top. Today, there are white headscarves painted in a circle around that monument to represent the moment and to remember it.

Lisandro de la Torre

Another repressive military government took over the country in the 1930s. The Argentinians refer to the 1930s as the Infamous Decade. We saw a statue of Lisandro de la Torre, an Argentinian politician who was never the president. Still, he is held in high esteem as a paragon of ethical behavior. He was a member of the Argentinian Senate. Before the military coup, he was a vocal opponent of the ruling Radical Party. Then the military took over. And even though he hadn't liked the party in power, he was absolutely opposed to a military takeover, feeling that this was a denial of democracy. The government of the 1930s did terrible things and de la Torre would call them out on it in the Senate. He would publicly address the Senate, listing the worst deeds of the government.

One thing that the 1930s government did was build Avenida 9 de Julio. This is an incredibly wide boulevard which can handle a lot of traffic. Some argue it is among the widest of all avenues in the world. The obelisk is in the middle of it, also built by that same government.

Sounds like a real positive development, right? Yes and no. This wasn't empty land that the government decided to build a road on. This was entire neighborhoods. People were cleared out. Homes and businesses were demolished. Ironically, this neighborhood was called, and still is, San Nicolas. Many old neighborhoods of Buenos Aires were named for the church that was central to that neighborhood. San Telmo is named for the Church of San Telmo which still stands. San Nicolas was named for the Church of San Nicolas. But that church is no more.

Where the church once stood

The church was in the middle of the land the government wanted for its road project. In fact, where the Church of San Nicolas stood is where the obelisk stands today. The neighborhood kept its name, but lost its church, and got a pillar to the sky in its place. Lost a lot of its residents too, so there were fewer people left to complain.

I learned a lot about Argentinian history during this three hours of walking. But I also want to tell you a bit about the journey to the walking tour and back again.

It just so happened that yesterday, the day we did the tour, was the Pride March in Buenos Aires. Alrica and I caught a bus to get to Plazoleta Eva Perón. But the bus didn't follow its regular route. Alrica was watching on Google maps as we made all kinds of turns and went far south of the regular route of the bus. At the time, we didn't know why, only that there was some road closures. We thought it might be related to the visit from the Pope. (The Pope arrives today in Argentina, but we thought maybe they were closing roads a day early.) Turns out, that wasn't the reason. It was for the Pride March.

We were able to get out of the bus just a couple blocks from where we wanted to exit, so it wasn't a big deal for us at all. We were just lucky that in our neighborhood it was on its regular route. Otherwise, we would have never found it. During the walk to the meeting point, I noted a poster advertising a band with what I thought was a clever name.

Houston and the Problems. I find it funny.

Coming home, we did pass through a park with closed streets all around it. Here there were merchants selling all kinds of pride related merchandise. One of them had tarps laid out and on the tarps were lots of these skimpy women's tops in pride colors. Alrica decided against buying one. It really was a lot less material that she usually wears in a top. Plus, we own pretty boring bland clothes. For example, all of my shirts are just one solid color. Why? Not because we hate imagination, but by having very plain things, they are acceptable everywhere we go. When you own so little and have to carry it when you travel, you want your wardrobe to be useful no matter where you go. People don't object to boring. You see, I'm boring by design! (That's my excuse, don't disagree.)

Check out the capes. And the socks!

Argentina is pretty liberal in regards to homosexuality. Same-sex marriage has been legal here since 2010. They also passed a major transgender rights law in 2012. They were the first country in Latin America to do both of these things. As a result, Buenos Aires has the largest openly homosexual population of any city in Latin America. And we saw plenty of people dressed to participate in the march. As I mentioned before, the very next day the Pope was scheduled to arrive. I guess the Pride March had already been planned and then the Pope announced his intention to visit. Some in the government were worried about holding Pride the day before the Pope arrived. Someone ran it by the Pope who was completely not bothered by it. You go Pope!

We decided that taking a bus could be challenging. Who knows where it would pick up or what route it would take? Instead, we opted for the subway. You can't detour the subway.

I noticed one of the maps over the doors of the train car. Not only does it show you the stops of the train, but also which road you are riding under. And it lists the names of all the cross streets. What a great idea!

Cross streets listed on both sides of the road

We wanted to exit at the Rio de Janeiro stop. (Name of a road, we didn't travel back to Brazil.) I would normally pronounce that J in Janeiro like the French j, sort of a zh sound. I think that is how the Portuguese pronounce the j as well. But in South America, we find that each country has its own way to pronounce some of the letters. J is one of those which can have a variety of sounds. In some countries it is an h sound, in others it is a y sound, and here, in Argentina, it is apparently that hard kh sound like you are clearing your throat. It's not a sound we tend to use in English.

So we visited three neighborhoods, learned about Argentinian history over the past 500 years, saw a social movement in action, and even picked up a bit of linguistic knowledge. What a day for my brain!