Drew International Seminar-Argentina 2006-2007

Friday, January 12, 2007

January 6, 2007

Lisa Apple and Lindsay Sabatino

Tour around the city of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is one province out of twenty-three in Argentina, and the city of Buenos Aires is in the province, but not the capital (see the comment for explanation). The northern part of the city is more upscale and has a lot of European influence, which can be seen through the architecture of the buildings. The southern part of the city is more closely linked to immigration. Touring the city gave us a good chance to become acquainted with it, learn were places are located, and learn the history about it. We were able to witness how each immigrant group impacted the city shaping it to the way it is today. Palermo is the first section we saw. The biggest park in Buenos Aires is located in this section. There were a lot of people running on the streets, which is not common in the area we are staying. The elite also tend to live in this area.

Belgrano is a section that the British gradually took over following their failed attempts tried to take over the country in 1806 and then again in 1807. The first English settlers were the liberated prisoners from the invasion, but now this is a very upscale area. The buildings of a mixture of styles including Tudor houses from the English influence. The side roads are made of laid bricks and stones. The people we originally lived in this area have now moved to wealthy private districts or back to England.

Once is a more Jewish (from Eastern Europe) section of the city. This is more of a commercial district. The Jewish people now do not necessarily run the business, but instead own the buildings. Yiddish is spoken in this area.

The downtown area of BA is also very commercialized and inspired by Paris. We stopped at Plaza de Mayo and walked around for a while. The buildings around this area are the Cabildo, or the Old City Hall, and Metropolitan Cathedral. The Metropolitan Cathedral contains 5 side alters and 1 main alter. Protests take place in front of Casa Rosada, including the Madres de las Plaza de Mayo.

We headed to La Boca next. This is mainly an Italian section. We were able to walk around this area as well. The tenement houses in this area were not supplied for the Italian immigrants but they had to build them. They are very colorful because they painted the houses with left over paint from the boats. They used only what they could. During the time of exploring the streets of the area people could hear music blasting from stores and playing from the streets. There was also Tango being danced in the streets. Things were being sold on the streets as well, such as paintings of the city, clothes, or jewelry. Italian flags were also hung everywhere through out this section. People are very proud to live in this section. They paint pictures on buildings to depict important events in their history.

After lunch we visited two very different art museums both in La Boca. The first, the Quinquela Martin museum, has art from both Martin and other La Boca artists. The art displayed ranged from portraits, landscapes, scenes of La Boca, sculptures, and art by modern artists who had won a competition.

Martin´s art, displayed mainly in the upper floor of the museum (in the same space where Martin used to live and work), reflects the harsh realities of life working in the port at La Boca. Many of his paintings depicted a working scene where brightly colored boats and dark, faceless workers stood out against a backdrop of the water and the often dark sky. Interestingly, some of Martin´s art also had spiritual and religious tones. Three paintings in particular (which were displayed near one another in the museum) reflected this theme. “Annunciacion” (which showed sunlight streaming through a parting in clouds as a sailor looked out at the port), “Ternura Espiritual” (depicting a sort of boat graveyard and a weeping willow draped over a deteriorating boat), and “Reencarnacion” (a painting of flowers growing inside a boat full of holes).

After spending time in that museum we went to another. In this museum (which is actually the home of the artist Celia Chevalier) we had the opportunity to speak with Chevalier and she explained the thought process behind many of her paintings. She told us that she paints Argentina the way it looked when she was a child. Specifically, she paints the Argentina she remembers from the summer of 1952. Chevalier explained that she chose that date because historians consider that the year Argentine society began to decline. She paints to help preserve the society she knew. Chevalier pointed out to us several interesting details about her paintings. For example, the red car that appears in each one of her paintings. She told us that her family had this car until she was nine (when it was sold) and that by including the car in each one of the paintings it strings the paintings together and makes each painting part of her journey through Argentina.

After we finished speaking with Celia Chevalier we left La Boca and returned to the hotel.

1 Comments:

  • At 12:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    José said...

    The City of Buenos Aires is not the Province of Buenos Aires, although it is equivalent to a province. It is an "Autonomous City" ("Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires"). The Province of Buenos Aires exists. Its capital is the city of La Plata. The cause of this apparent mess is that the city of Buenos Aires was in fact the capital of the Province, till it became the capital of the country ("Capital Federal")

    3:03 PM

     

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