Like many people, I enjoy exploring a city by walking its streets, and Buenos Aires is a great place to do that. One of the things I particularly like is that it’s not laid out in a grid pattern, but more like the arcs of a spiderweb, so following one particular lane can take you off in odd directions. Now, when I first moved to BA I was a bit fearless about wandering any and everywhere, and I think within the first two years I’d at least set foot in every one of the 47 barrios at some point. As the city has become a bit more insecure, particularly in areas where some of the more notorious villas misereres are, I’ve become more cautious as to where I walk, particularly if I’m out solo. Some of that was influenced by an armed robbery in the streets, and some of it probably is just a waking up to the reality that there are parts of the city that it’s best to be far more careful around than I had been.
I’ve chronicled most if not all of those walks on the pages of this blog, but they’ve become buried in the mountain of information here… so, I thought I’d set out a bit of a guide to them… and, awaaaay we go!
Acassuso, Gran Buenos Aires
Adrogué and here, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Av. de Mayo, Centro to Congreso
Azul, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Barrio Barracas
Barrio Flores
Barrio La Boca
Barrio Nueva Pompeya
Barrio San Telmo
Belén de Escobar, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Cementerio Alemán
Cementerio Britanico
Cementerio Chacarita
Cementerio Recoleta
Church of Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal
Ciudadela, Gran Buenos Aires
Coreatown, Bajo Flores
La Plata, here and here, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Luján, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Mar del Plata (and succeeding posts), Provincia de Buenos Aires
Nueva York, Villa DeVoto
Palacio Barolo, Congreso
Pringles, Chacabuco
San Antonio de Areco, Provincia de Buenos Aires
San Martín and Villa Ballester, Gran Buenos Aires
San Pedro, Provinica de Buenos Aires
Tigre, here, here, here and here, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Ushuaia and succeeding posts, Tierra del Fuego
Vicente Lopéz, Gran Buenos Aires
Paint By Numbers
This was my first “series” of walks (still in progress) – I was trying to come up with an offbeat way to see different parts of the city. Streets here are named after people, places, events and important historical dates. I took the last of those, the streets which have names that start with numbers, there are fourteen of them, plus one that wasn’t a date, and made a list (presented in the order I’ve walked them):
3 de Febrero and here, Belgrano & Nuñez
5 de Julio, San Telmo
24 de Noviembre, Balvanera/Once
14 de Julio (and, at the same time, Plaza 25 de Agosto), Chacarita
15 de Noviembre de 1889, Parque Patricios
12 de Octubre, Chacarita
2 de Abríl, Chacarita
25 de Mayo, Centro
9 de Julio and here, Retiro to San Telmo
2 de Abríl de 1982, Villa Lugano
11 de Septiembre de 1888, Belgrano
20 de Septiembre, La Boca
20 de Febrero, Villa Urquiza
27 de Febrero, Villa Soldati
33 Orientales, Chacabuco
Random Acts of Training
A series in which I roll the (virtual) dice to pick a starting station, train line, stop, and other aspects of an adventure out to the surrounding province, walk around, take some photos, explore, eat some lunch.
#1 – Victoria
#2 – Vicente Lopez
#3 – San Miguel
#4 – Acassuso
#5 – Villa Martelli
Leadership
As I’ve spent more time in Argentina I’ve gotten at least casually interested in its history – not just the bits and pieces that one picks up on a day to day basis, but a sort of “how did it get to where it is now?” interest. One way to get to know a country’s past is through its leaders – the process of selection and who gets selected tells you quite a bit about the state of the union at different points in time. So, I went back to the beginning, starting first with an overview of the leadership, and then tying it to walks, starting back with the first official leader of the republic (this is a very long term project as you can see, which may or may not ever be completed)….
The Supreme Directors (1814-1820)
Gervasio Antonio de Posadas (Recoleta)
Carlos María de Alvear (Recoleta)
José Casimiro Rondeau Pereyra (Constitución to Parque Patricios)
José Ignacio Álvarez Thomas (Palermo to Villa Urquiza)
Antonio González de Balcarce (Monserrat to San Telmo)
Juan Martín de Pueyrredón (Recoleta to Once)
Juan Pedro Julián Aguirre y López de Anaya (Villa Crespo)
[Note: There is a six year gap, from 1820-1826 when the country simply wasn’t under any unified leadership, referred to as the Era of Anarchy.]
First Presidential Government (1826-1827)
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia – in multiple parts because of the 11.5km length of the avenue: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th… (Centro to Liniers)
Alejandro Vicente López y Planes (Recoleta)
Governors of Buenos Aires managing international relations (1827-1854)
Manuel Dorrego (Chacarita to Palermo, Palermo to Las Cañitas)
Juan Galo de Lavalle (Centro to Plaza Lavalle, Plaza Lavalle, to Once, and, finally, to Villa Crespo)
Juan José Viamonte González (Centro to Once)
Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (Tandil?)
Juan Ramón González de Balcarce (San Telmo)
Manuel Vicente Maza (Almagro)
Justo José de Urquiza y García (Once/Urquiza)
Presidents (1854 – )
Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez
Juan Esteban Pedernera (Flores)
Bartolomé Mitre (Centro to Once)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (Palermo)
Nicolás Remigio Aurelio Avellaneda (Caballito)
Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (Vicente Lopez)
Miguel Angel Juárez Celman
Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini Bevans (Centro)
Luis Sáenz Peña (Parque Patricios)
José Evaristo de Uriburu y Álvarez de Arenales (Recoleta)
Manuel A. Quintana y Sáenz de Gaona (Recoleta)
José Figueroa Alcorta (Recoleta to Belgrano)
Roque Sáenz Peña Lahitte (Monserrat)
Victorino de la Plaza y Palacios
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Irigoyen Alem (Centro to San Telmo)
Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco (Centro to Recoleta)
José Félix Benito Uriburu y Uriburu
Agustín Pedro Justo Rolón
Jaime Gerardo Roberto Marcelino María Ortiz Lizardi
Ramón S. Castillo Barrionuevo (Retiro)
Arturo Rawson Corvalán (Almagro)
Pedro Pablo Ramírez
Edelmiro Julián Farrell Plaul
Juan Domingo Perón
Eduardo A. Lonardi Doucet
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Silveti
Arturo Frondizi Ercoli
José María Guido
Arturo Umberto Illia Francesconi
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo
Roberto Marcelo Levingston Laborda
Alejandro Agustín Lanusse Gelly
Héctor José Cámpora Demaestre
Raúl Alberto Lastiri
María Estela (Isabela) Martínez Cartas de Perón
Jorge Rafael Videla
Roberto Eduardo Viola Redondo
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli
Reynaldo Benito Bignone
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín
Carlos Saúl Menem
Fernando de la Rúa
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá Páez Montero
Eduardo Alberto Duhalde
Néstor Carlos Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner
Alberto Ángel Fernández
Milla de los Museos
In 2010 the city government declared a Museum Mile, basically laid out along Av. Libertador, with a couple of short tangents. Here are the sixteen official museums and write-ups as I get to them (I’ve been to all, just haven’t gotten to writing about them all – and some of them I gave cursory write-ups to in my early years here and have to go back and update).
Torre Monumental
Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernández Blanco
Museo Nacional Ferroviario Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
Museo de Arquitectura y Diseño de la Sociedad Central de Arquitectos
Palais de Glace
Centro Cultural Recoleta
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Paseo de las Esculturas
Museo del Automovíl Club Argentino
Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo
Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández
MALBA
Museo Evita
Museo del Planetario Galileo Galilei
Museo de Artes Plásticas Eduardo Sívori
And then, other museums that I’ve checked out:
La Noche en los Museos – UBA Medical School Museums, AMIA, Borges, Roca Museum of Historical Investigation (spiritualism)
A Trio of Museums – Holocaust Museum, Jewish Museum, National Theater Museum
Another trio! – Museo Xul Solar, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Museo de Arte Moderno
Museo del Automovil
Centro Ana Frank Argentina
Museo Nacional Historico
“One way to get to know a country’s past is through its leaders – the process of selection and who gets selected tells you quite a bit about the state of the union at different points in time.”
So true! Any time we are about to embark on a trip, particularly in a city like BA that is suited to “street-walking” (name made us laugh ;-), we make a point of learning about the history of where we’re going. In part, as you say, for the sake of simple historical curiosity, but also in part to get a feel for the real lay of the land. Great tip.
It’s actually been quite a fascinating project. One of the reasons it’s gone so slowly is that for each of the leaders, before I “walk the walk”, I’ve taken time to read up on him, and among the earliest ones – particularly those Supreme Directors, there’s not a lot of biographical info available. I might actually have one of the better collections of Argentine leaders’ biographies around these days, at least in scope, if not in quantity. (I think I might have one of the last extant copies of Posadas’ biography out there – the national library doesn’t even have one!)
[…] keep repeating it, and what they might do about that… all this, by the way, is leading up to a little walking tour (or several) of the “Supreme Directors” as these seven were known… you know, food, wine, […]