Buenos Aires

Neighborhoods

The capital city is divided into 48 barrios, or neighborhoods. Most are working-class barrios, while others resemble the rich enclaves of Los Angeles and New York City. Buenos Aires developed outward from the Plaza de Mayo, the historic square that is surrounded by the presidential palace known as the Casa Rosada (pink house), the colonial Town Hall (cabildo), and the Metropolitan Cathedral.

As the city grew, it turned its back on its working waterfront, physically and metaphorically. The Casa Rosada looked toward the Pampas, not the Río de la Plata. By the 1990s, city officials shifted gears and developed a plan to revive the waterfront. Millions of dollars were pumped into the new water-front neighborhood of Puerto Madero. A marina was built, and expensive restaurants and shops opened in the old brick warehouses. The latest census showed a few hundred people lived in the neighborhood.

West of Puerto Madero, in an area generally known as the centro (down-town), buildings date to the nineteenth century. To the south, in the barrio San Telmo, visitors can still see many buildings from the colonial era. The barrio was once a fashionable address, where the wealthier Porteños settled in large homes. In the nineteenth century, the elite abandoned San Telmo to escape yellow fever and moved further inland and north of the centro. They settled in barrios known as Palermo, Recoleta, and Retiro, today home to middle and upper-class Porteños.

San Telmo declined for many decades, and many homes became conventillos, cramped and unkempt living quarters for poor immigrants. Today, San Telmo is considered an artist's quarter, with low rents, and many antique stores and restaurants. Some areas have been restored and gentrified.

South of San Telmo is the famous and colorful barrio of La Boca (mouth), a mostly working class neighborhood that got its start at the mouth of the Riachuelo River. Originally, Italian immigrants settled in La Boca. They worked in the neighborhood's meat salting plants, which brought prosperity to Buenos Aires in the nineteenth century. Tourists flock to Caminito, a pedestrian walkway named after a famous tango, an Argentinean form of ballroom dancing that got its start on the fringes of Buenos Aires in the late 1880s. Caminito is flanked by modest homes brightly painted in an array of colors. During the day, artists sell their work, and couples show their tango steps to tourists.

North of Plaza de Mayo, the city opens up into large avenues, pedestrian walkways, and large parks. The cultural and business center of the nation is here. Avenida Santa Fe, lined by expensive restaurants and boutiques, is typical of the Barrio Norte, which includes the neighborhoods of Recoleta, Palermo, and Retiro, among others. Recoleta has remained a chic address, even for the dead. Some of the wealthiest and most famous Argentineans, including the cultural icon Eva Perón, are buried at the Cementerio de la Recoleta in the heart of the neighborhood.

Detached single-family homes are quite rare in Buenos Aires. Traditionally, families lived in row houses with interior patios or gardens. As the population grew more rapidly, two-and three-story buildings separated by a common wall were built. These buildings were known as petit hotels. In the twentieth century, detached high-rise apartment buildings began to dominate the landscape. In the Barrio Norte, these buildings stretch for many blocks. Some of them take up a whole block. According to government figures, about five percent of the population lives in substandard housing. In metropolitan Buenos Aires, the typical living unit in the villas miserias is a corrugated metal shack.