Foto of the Week: Cristina Kirchner’s Last Hurrah

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner supporter’s head to the Plaza de Mayo at mid-afternoon in anticipation of her last presidential address and informal address to the crowd from the Casa Rosada.

As the plaza began to fill with tens of thousands of people all afternoon, the president inaugurated the bust of former president Néstor Kirchner in the Casa Rosada tradition.

In her final address after eight years in office, Kirchner highlighted the improved economy since her husband Néstor Kirchner took office in 2003, her social programs and state recuperation of companies that had previously been privatized. She also referenced recent terrorist events around the world, noting the relative safety of the country. At one point her young grandson yelled out ‘te amo‘ (I love you) from the front row, at which point Kirchner interrupted to explain it was her grandson and said, “I love you too, Néstor Iván.”

She thanked Bolivian president, Evo Morales who was in attendance, her sister-in-law, Alicia Kirchner and other political allies in addition to human rights organizations such as the Madres de la Plaza.

Supporters in the plaza proved they aren’t going to let the change of government happen quietly, with protests and blockades planned for the next two days.

Casa Rosada Museum: A Modern Museum in the City’s 1st Fort

Just around the corner from the Plaza de Mayo is the sleek Casa Rosada Museum. This museum was built in 2010 and originally called the Bicentenary Museum to commemorate 200 years since the start of the revolution that led to Argentina’s independence.

The sprawling museum is below street level, and lies on the spot where the first fort in Buenos Aires was built in 1580. The original brickwork is still visible in the museum and makes for a stunning reminder of the building’s history.

Historical Videos in the Casada Rosada Museum

Inside the museum visitors can watch Spanish-language videos of different periods of Argentine history. Important artifacts such as clothing and objects of some of Argentina’s most popular political figures such as Eva and Juan Perón are also on display.

Non-Spanish speakers may find themselves a little lost by the videos, but they shouldn’t feel bad. Even for those with a vague idea of Argentine history might find it difficult to fully understand which liberator was which, and which coup happened when – which serves to highlight Argentina’s complicated political history.

The museum ends on a patriotic hopeful note, with footage of the late Nestor Kirchner and videos, which emphasize the changes he made during his presidency. The message seems to be ‘Everything is okay now, we’ve sorted out all the country’s problems.’

Interestingly, no extra footage or objects have been added since Nestor’s death nor of his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s presidency.

Plaza de Mayo Through the Years

Close to the entrance a video shows images of the Plaza de Mayo changing over the years, which is accessible for non-Spanish speakers and gives a visual insight into historical changes in the square.

A principle point of interest at the Casa Rosada Museum is the 1933 mural Ejercicio plástico, by Mexican, David Aflaro Siqueiros. It was originally painted in journalist Natalia Botano’s basement, and excavated in its entirety to the museum.

There are also retro cars and temporary exhibitions concerning Argentine figures and history plus a traditional patisserie and coffee shop.

The architecturally impressive, if propagandist, museum is worth a stroll through after taking in the Casa Rosada tour around the corner. -Rosie Hilder

Casa Rosada/Bicentenary Museum
Paseo Colón 100
Tel: 4344-3802
Hours: Weds – Sun & holidays:
(April-Nov) 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
(Dec – March) 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

• Entrance: free
• Spanish language only

The Real La Boca: Barrio of Solidarity

La Boca is a major sightseeing hot spot in Buenos Aires, but visitors rarely stay here at night. The ‘hit-and-run’ style tourism in the southern neighborhood causes some to write it off as a gimmicky tourist trap.

If you peak behind the colorful façades though, La Boca is one of Buenos Aires’ most authentic barrios and it has been for a long time.

Due to the area’s early influx of immigrants and isolation from the rest of the city, La Boca has a rich cultural history and a long track record of community solidarity, social anarchist politics and a lively arts scene.

At the end of the 19th century, La Boca was to Buenos Aires what Montmartre was to Paris — a sometimes seedy mecca for emerging immigrant artists, in their own little world apart from the city.

As early as 1877 the Cosmopolitan, Philharmonic Friendly Society of La Boca formed to promote the arts and subsequently theaters popped up all over the district. There were also a number of neighborhood publications in Spanish and Italian, including El Ancla, El Riachuelo, El Progreso de La Boca and El Naciónal, a publication that lasted until the 1940’s.

The Independent Republic of La Boca

In the 1880’s the zone seceded from Argentina and was briefly declared, ‘The Independent Republic of La Boca.’

AlfredoPalacios — Alfredo Palacios in 1961

A few versions circulate about how the revolt happened. The most popular narrative is that in 1882 young La Boca residents, tired of receiving low wages, liberated themselves and raised the Genoese flag of their homeland. Although the history books make it seem as if it was a rag-tag effort, then-President Julio A. Roca gathered his army and visited the site to lower the flag himself.

The lively politics didn’t stop the neighborhood’s growth, and millions of mostly European immigrants, many political exiles, would come through La Boca in the following years.

In 1904 La Boca elected Alfredo Palacios to the Argentine congress. He was the first socialist representative in all of Latin America. Palacios had a long and fruitful career lasting until 1965. He was behind the creation of many Argentine labor laws, especially concerning women and children.

La Boca Today

Today La Boca is still a neighborhood with many immigrants, mostly Bolivians, Paraguayans, Peruvians and some Arabs, Africans and artists from other parts of Latin America.

Some of La Boca’s homes are still conventillos (community style housing). As in nearby San Telmo, some of those are casas tomadas, or squats occupied by residents marginalized by their nationality, poverty and/or lack of education.

The brightly painted homes (themselves the result of a 1950’s effort to revive the district), the overpriced restaurants and sidewalk tango dancers in the neighborhood’s epicenter are just a photo-worthy part of the bigger picture.

The volunteer fire brigade of La Boca, founded in 1884, was the first to form in the country. Today the firefighters are still volunteers and are viewed as national heroes and the city’s quickest responders. La Boca is also home to one of the country’s first community radio stations, La Boca 90.1 FM, founded in 1986.

La Boca also enjoys some of the city’s best candombe groups and murgas (music and dance troops) highlighting the mark early Afro-Argentines left on the neighborhood.

Community gardens, with participation levels that wax and wane from season to season, are dotted on abandoned plots throughout the neighborhood.

“The real La Boca begins when the tourists go home, at around six p.m. or so,” says Laura Barroso, a lifelong resident of the neighborhood. “It’s full of tenements so everyone is always on the street — it’s like the patio of the neighborhood. People hang out in the street, eat in the street and everyone pretty much knows each other.”

If you’d like to check out La Boca on a safe and fun tour, see our walking and bike tours or get in touch via our contact form.

→ Check out the La Boca tours on our curated tour list

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Porteño Corner: Veteran Journalist, Jorge Raventos

Jorge Raventos
Journalist
Age: 67
Villa del Parque

Q: You used to write for Playboy. You know in English the old quip men say is, ‘they read it for the articles.’

Yes, I worked for Playboy for a while for about three years, from 1984 or ’85 until 1988. I haven’t seen it for a while.

It changed when (Hugh) Hefner’s daughter took over the publication. She wanted to make it more of a glossy table magazine, more feminine.

• More feminine?

More feminine in the sense that the characteristic of the magazine changed. It used to be a magazine for boys returning home from the war, but she started to incorporate things like fashion, more ‘light’ topics.

• Being a journalist what was your life like during Argentina’s military dictatorship?

Yes, on top of it I’m a political journalist. We lived abroad for three and a half years, in Switzerland, once we had sons and after the loss of the Falklands War there wasn’t the same risk — it was clear that the military government was becoming politically weakened. There was less repression after we moved back.

• How did you find Argentina when you returned?

Well we were happy to be back — it was pretty much like it was before the military came into power.

• Why does Argentina struggle so much when it has the resources to be a very strong country?

Argentina is very modern in many aspects, but it doesn’t have a particularly good position in the world. I just came from a conference discussing education and we’re compared with other South American countries, not Europe, as we’d like to think. In Chile, for every 100 students that graduate high school, 60 to 70 go on to university. In Argentina, out of 100 students, only 19 graduate university. But university is free! There are resources that are provided for this, the problem is the primary and secondary education has become very poor.

Five years after a student graduates university they have returned the investment the government made on them but the universities don’t spend their resources well. There is a lot to change because there is too much back and forth among us, which results in nothing getting done. In Chile and Uruguay they work together to complete things instead of being polarized due to being too impassioned. It would be better if we were more boring and organized!

• Tell me what happened to your political blog that was hacked in 2007?

Well I wrote something about the (then) Minister of Justice (Aníbal Fernández) in the newspaper ‘La Capital’ of Mar del Plata and we engaged in a pretty heated debated back and forth in the editorial section of the paper. I put the whole series and some notes in my blog and the blog was hacked.

They took the password and destroyed the blog, they changed the links and made them link to porno websites and things like that and there were indirect threats, including a reference to my son.

They were also able to send comments to others through my email address. I believe that (Argentine Minister of Justice) Aníbal Fernández was behind it. I can’t prove it for sure, but the same thing happened to other people whom he had a beef with.

• What is your opinion of the state of journalism in Argentina?

There is a lot of personal aggression between the government and the newspapers. They make these official TV programs and just systematically campaign. It’s not for nothing that the current government is acting like the military government after the Malvinas— they are weak. This government fights with all the newspapers. When you are strong you don’t have to act like a master of puppets behind the scenes.

• What local newspaper do you read?

I read all the newspapers. They are generally unbalanced if you compare them to each other. Each paper gives out different ‘facts’. It’s getting better, but you have to read a bunch of newspapers to get a good idea of what’s really going on.

• What do you think of Argentina’s answer to Michael Moore, Jorge Lanata?

Oh, he used to be very provocative, which sometimes we need. Other times it’s necessary for a journalist to be more objective. To be very provocative is show business instead of journalism, but it does get ratings.