Buenos Aires: the city of fury, the Sunday barbecue and feelings at their peak
By Julia Henríquez
Photos: Demian Colman
Buenos Aires is classic, it is colorful, it is cultured, it is amusing… It is a city that has humor and its creative geniuses have made it a protagonist in theater, film, literature and music. It is so universal that from anywhere in the world, at some point, many of us have felt it as our own, because its music has made us vibrate and even its misfortunes have made us cry.
It is enough to walk a few blocks in any direction to feel the do, re, mi that makes the porteño move. It’s as if every corner has its own notes: a saxophone here, a band there, a dancer in Florida or a singer in the same subway car. But it’s not just the street singers. It is also the brain burning in memory: walking to Corrientes 348 while Carlitos Gardel sings in our ears, going with Fito to the Café La Paz, with Sandro de América to the delta of El Tigre or repeating over and over again the ballads of Soda Stereo and Mercedes Sosa, while we walk along Avenida de Mayo or eat facturas at the Café Tortoni. And they are also the stars: artists from all over the world who frequent the city and give rhythm to everyday life in clubs and theaters.
The fame of being the city that never sleeps is not for nothing. While the sun goes down to the rhythm of alternative rock, tango makes itself felt in the open-air milonga of Plaza Dorrego, in San Telmo, the lindy hop stroll through the most representative parks of the city with the guys from Swing Buenos Aires and the rumba doesn’t stop until the sun rises in Plaza Serrano. The pre party, the party and the breakfast are the unmissable steps of the best nights in Buenos Aires and the variety of rhythms covers the rainbow of possible subcultures.
But not everything is a party. Since its early days, Buenos Aires has welcomed foreigners from all corners of the world, often with nothing but hope. Today, migrants continue to enter through the front door and contribute to the construction of a metropolis with the soul of a people, which takes a siesta at noon and refuses to sleep at night. Those multicolored hands were the authors of its best scenes and it is in the neighborhood of La Boca, in a path of music, souvenirs and good food, where it is most evident.
The iconic Casa Rosada, facing Plaza de Mayo, is another example of the symbiosis of cultures and influences that inspired those who built the city. The eclectic architecture invades the roads with excuses for tourists to stop and observe everything they see. The buildings on Avenida de Mayo are the perfect summary of the capital’s history, delighting architecture aficionados. Masonic symbols,art nouveau balconies, centennial clocks and lavish domes outline the blue sky of the best summer days.
The city government organizes free walks with specialized guides who tell secret stories featuring famous architects and ghosts hiding behind windows. With prior registration via internet, on weekends it is possible to visit the Casa Rosada inside and out and to look out onto the balcony where Madonna’s Evita sang “Don’t cry for me, Argentina”.
Every neighborhood has its own small cultural center, but art lovers will find the best events at the Kirchner Cultural Center: theater, music, dance, literature and plastic arts come together under one roof with quality activities, all free of charge, and national and international personalities. Museums invade the city, as there is something for everyone: architecture, history, design and even the Beatle Museum and the Mate Museum. MALBA, MACBA and MAMBA are not just a lucky play on words, but excellent cultural centers with exhibitions of Latin American, contemporary and modern art, respectively. The Museo de Bellas Artes has a collection of over 11,000 works, the Evita Museum tells its history and touches the hearts of its visitors, the Museo Casa Gardel details the life of the singer within the walls that saw him grow and the Museo del Humor, where you go back to childhood with Hijitus, Mafalda and many others, is the end of a fun “caricature trail”, which for several kilometers recreates the most famous characters that have emerged from the genius pencils of Buenos Aires.
Corrientes Street lights up at dawn and in the middle of the season there is no rest for theater lovers. Actors we have seen all our lives on the big screen walk along this street from stage to stage as if it were their own home: Les Luthiers, for example, do not want to stop making us cry with laughter and that is why they come back every now and then to light up the Gran Rex; Ricardo Darín strolls quietly between plays where he performs live, and in some corner the eternal Sandro is revived thanks to the magic of the theater. Around the city, small theaters with alternative proposals, community theater and spaces for growing figures, make the boards sound even in the least thought streets. Curious fact: the blind theaters in the Abasto neighborhood offer a new experience of senses, music, food and sensations in total darkness! Do you dare?
And since we already went for a walk along Corrientes and then went into the theater, now we will have to eat. Where to start? Desserts of a thousand colors? The exquisite facturas or the classic alfajores? Vegetables exploited to their maximum expression? Artisanal ice cream parlors? Or perhaps the famous meats that make our mouths water at the mere mention of them? Let the battle for the tastiest pizza begin! Güerrin is the first name that comes to mind. Founded in 1932, it has witnessed the cultural growth of Buenos Aires, and offers more than seventy varieties. Las Cuartetas and El Imperio de la Pizza, also on Corrientes Street, are considered cultural heritage of the city.
The grills will be the occasion for a new battle in search of the juiciest cut or the most tender meat. At La Brigada, for example, the meat is cut with a spoon and the wine is drunk with the best company. Siga la Vaca, in Puerto Madero, is very popular and will serve as a pretext to walk through this other wonderful scenery of the city.
Dinner shows are a hit with tourists looking for a gastronomic experience with a mix of tango and gaucho folklore. But if what you want is to get to know the deep Buenos Aires and see that tango is alive in the hearts of the porteños, you should go to a milonga (but, please, only as a spectator; don’t even think of trying to break the code). The milonga schedule, which is very strict, is published and offers more than twenty options every day of the week.
But the top prize of must-see places goes to the cafés notables, more than eighty throughout the city, where the wood-paneled walls, tables with lanterns and waiters dressed in bow ties evoke those times when writers, playwrights, cartoonists and painters gathered in famous gatherings to philosophize about life and write the stories that would make us fly to new worlds. Having identified and listed them under the name of Bars Notables is part of an initiative that seeks to save the oldest bars in the city. Among many others, the London City, Cortázar’s favorite; Las Violetas, as a famous tea room; the Plaza Dorrego, in the classic San Telmo neighborhood, and, above all of them, the Café Tortoni, which with more than one hundred years witnessed the best times of the city. The Tortoni has lived so long that when you enter through its doors, time stands still and among the murmur of the people you can still feel the energy of those who visited it: it is as if Borges, Gardel and Alfonsina had never left.
And as it is all about porteño passion -although they know how to express it to the rhythm of “Razón de vivir” or “Zamba para olvidarte”-, weekends are lived with shirts to the sky and shouts to the surface, because soccer culture is not something to be taken as a joke: the colors of the clubs are in the blood and on Sunday nights the shouts of happiness or frustration come out of the windows bouncing from building to building. Sports fans visit La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors, to visit the stadium and museum and buy all kinds of souvenirs. All around it is a boulevard of stars with the hand marks and footprints of its best players, the scene of hundreds of daily photos. And best of all, just minutes away from the colorful Caminito.
And speaking of religions, characters and passions, we cannot forget that Pope Francis was born, grew up and was formed in these streets that smell of so much. On weekends, the city government offers the Papal Circuit, a guided tour of the most representative neighborhoods in the life of the holy pontiff, which is already as classic as the tour of the Recoleta cemetery, led by historian Eduardo Lazzari, or the architectural walk along Avenida de Mayo, guided by expert Gabriela Chistik.
The tour of its typical markets is still to come: oh, how wonderful to spend a Sunday afternoon at the Mataderos Market, where folklore is so alive and felt that you will soon find yourself dancing a chacarera to the rhythm of a local group. That same day it is convenient to eat a wonderful barbecue in the square and buy handicrafts in one of its more than seven hundred stalls. The Recoleta Fair is the largest handicraft market in Buenos Aires and the specialty of its products stands out for its artistic value and the quality of its materials.
Meanwhile, in Plaza Dorrego, in San Telmo, on Sundays all kinds of antique objects are exhibited in a fair that has its epitome every November of the year, during its anniversary party.
If you have not yet done so, one day you should visit so many porteño stages that have become universal thanks to his unforgettable artistic works. The list of “must-sees” is long, especially for those of us who lived Buenos Aires long before setting foot in it.
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To book a tour of the city visit:https://turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar/es
By phone at (+54 11) 5030 9200 Int. 2134. By mail to visitasguiadas_entur@buenosaires.gob.ar
Historical tour of La Recoleta or at the Barolo Palace: 011 4382 9989
Notable coffees:https://turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar/es
To go to a milonga: https://hoy-milonga.com/buenos-aires/es
For reservations at the Kirchner Cultural Center: www.cck.gob.ar/
