You don’t have to be all that interested
in Argentine history to enjoy
Eternautas’ brand-new book on
Buenos Aires. A liking for gossip and
genteel trivia will be enough to hook
you on it, whether you choose to
peruse its pages while lazing in an
armchair, or in the midst of the urban
fray as you follow its mentions
of past events from one corner to
the next.
The book explains many things
that one is curious about but is too
lazy to look up on the Internet or an
encyclopedia. For instance, the origin
of the word “cuadreras” (shortdistance
horse races), or the evolution
of iconic landmarks like Plaza
de Mayo, Plaza Dorrego and the River
Plate shoreline.
When they set up the Eternautas
travel agency in 1999, historians Ricardo
Watson, Lucas Rentero and
Gabriel Di Meglio quickly occupied
a cultural niche in the market that
had lain vacant for some time. Their
following of local history buffs quickly
burgeoned into a small legion on
the weekend days during which they
conducted their walking tours, to
which bus tours were soon added.
The deluge of foreign tourists unleashed
by the wildcat devaluation
of the Argentine currency two years
later brought them new clients for
whom their team of guides - university
teachers of subjects like social
sciences, art, architecture and
history - prepared explanations in
English. The trio hadn’t originally
planned to write a book but, nearly
a decade after startup of the agency,
they fortunately decided to put some
of their itineraries into print.
The book is in Spanish, and they
are thinking of preparing “an English
version, not a translation” of it.
Buenos Aires tiene historia
(Aguilar, March 2008, 398 pages) is
packed full of fascinating accounts
that in many cases seem like pages
out of a novel (or soap opera) whose
characters live lives that are intermeshed.
Following are two examples.
During the dictatorship of Federalist
strongman Juan Manuel de
Rosas in the 19th century, Unitarian
notables who were on the run from
the tyrant’s Mazorca goon squad
waited for dark moonless nights to
make a run for boats that were to
take them to safety in Montevideo.
This was when the waters of the River
Plate still covered what is now
Paseo Colón. One night in May 1840,
the Mazorca nabbed three aristocrats
near the corner of what is now
Paseo Colón and Humberto I, and
slit their throats on the spot, even
though some of the victims were
friends of relatives of Rosas.
Charles Ridgely Horne, the US
businessman whose wife was the sister
of Unitarian General Juan Lavalle,
bought the land that is now Parque
Lezama from an Englishman in 1845,
built the mansion that is now the National
History Museum, and was a
friend of Rosas (even though his
wife’s brother was killed by the
strongman’s Federalist forces). When
Rosas was overthrown, this friendship
resulted in Ridgely Horne’s deportation
and the confiscation of his
property, which he managed to sell
only some years later to Gregorio
Lezama, the Salta-born empresario
for whom the park is named because
his widow made it a condition when
she sold it to the city hall.
San Telmo, the neighbourhood
where these events took place, is especially
rich in tales. As its authors
say, 400 years of history are packed
into the kilometre of Calle Defensa
that stretches from Plaza de Mayo
de Parque Lezama.
Rubbing shoulders with these
scenes of colonial and 19th-century
happenings is the new memorial
beneath the 25 de Mayo motorway
that commemorates the victims
of the federal police supply depotcum-
concentration camp known as “Club Atlético” where hundreds of
people were tortured and murdered
in 1977 in a basement just metres
from traffic in the middle of the city.
The 11 tour itineraries included in
this book are Monserrat, San Telmo,
La Boca, Retiro, Avenida Alvear, San
Nicolás, Recoleta, Monuments of
Buenos Aires, Palermo Viejo, Puerto
Madero, and the “Other South” ( four
unsung but intriguing working-class
neighbourhoods).
It is not a book that tells history in
chronological order; it is a book of
itineraries in which history flows
through different neighbourhoods.
I suggest that you read the book
and then join, one by one, the tours
that illustrate its chapters.
BY BONNIE TUCKER
Herald Travel Editor |
