Argentine Life and Culture is a required class the San Diego City College students on this Buenos Aires study abroad trip takes together every Friday. The morning starts with a lecture by a guest speaker followed by an excursion in the afternoon. This week, the lecture was on Argentina world view and the economic crisis presented by an associate professor of Argentina's Universidad de Belgrano, Liria Evangelista. She deftly condensed a historical timeline of Argentina into an hour, from the early 20th century to present day.
Despite the dreary weather (rain had dominated the week's forecast), the class climbed aboard a colectivo to visit the barrio La Boca, home of the Boca Juniors futbol stadium and El Caminito, the colorfully adorned street founded by local artist Benito Quinquela Martin.
Museo Conventillo, home to Marjan Grum and his wife, was a conventillo (tenement) that housed many poor immigrants from Europe during the early 1900's. Grum has transformed it into a gallery for his art and a cultural center for La Boca where tours are conducted often.
Our last stop was a non-governmental organization called Portenitos where children of the community are welcome to do schoolwork and express their artistic abilities in the creation of shirts, boxes and other handicrafts to sell along with their main source of funding: alfajores (cookies with filling such as dulce de leche or fruit).
Photos courtesy of DK
Left: Museo Conventillo
Top Right: The vibrant El Caminito
Bottom Right: La Bombonera - Boca Juniors futbol (soccer) stadium
La Boca was amazing. This working class area originally populated by Italian dock workers has bloomed into a colorful center of art, restaurants and the colorful metal houses which present a refreshing change from the rest of the city.
ReplyDeleteBuenos Aires Real Estate there is super affordable and you get to be close to the Boca Jrs. Stadium!
Lindsay