Today, we had the opportunity to visit the country’s national archives and learn about the history of the railroad in the country and view the extensive preservation and storage process for historical documents and photos that tell the good and bad of the country’s story. Railroads in Argentina, just as in the United States, played a large role in the spread of people and ideas during the late 19th and 20th centuries and is currently the 8th largest network in the world. Argentina, despite its rich history, is still developing as country in terms of infrastructure. The building where the archives are stored was very humid and lacked a reasonable ventilation system to create an environment suitable for storage of the delicate items.

The most interesting part of the day for me was the opportunity to tour the area around La Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo. We had the opportunity to see remnants of the 1955 bombing of Plaza de Mayo, an act orchestrated by the Argentine Navy and Air Force as they opposed the Juan Perón era of government. One of the interesting things I have realized about Argentina’s government and its relationship with the people. Argentinians have great national pride and loyalty despite its recent legacy of dictatorship and political corruption. One of the buildings in Plaza de Mayo has never been restored from its damage from the bombings in order to remember the event and honor the lives lost in the tragedy.

I have realized that the city of Buenos Aires is very unique because it shares a personal history and the history of the nation. While exploring Plaza de Mayo, we had the opportunity to watch the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo march for answers to the disappearance of their children during the “Dirty War” period. Many people marched in solidarity with the mothers as they chanted and sang around the May Pyramid in the center of the plaza. It was interesting to witness this because of the events taking place in the United States right now as people of color are searching for answers and a resolution to a culture of state violence. It brings up a question of if things will ever be solved if these women are still searching for answers from their government over 30 years later.

On the bright side, it was a beautiful day in the city. We had the opportunity to see people on their morning commute to work, children on field trips, tango street performers, and people doing yoga in the park. Overall, Buenos Aires is a vibrant city and I look forward to uncovering more of the culture in the upcoming days.

Much like the city of Buenos Aires, today was filled with many different things. Instead of having class like usual, we woke up a bit earlier than usual and went to the national archives. It was interesting to see how they took care of all the documents and how things like humidity could cause problems. I liked having the opportunity to read older Spanish primary source documents because it allowed me to see and compare how Spanish was once written and how it is written now. I feel that going to the national archives was one of the best ways to see first hand how a language can develop. The national archives also made me think about how open Argentina is about showing many of these documents whereas in Italy, the Vatican secret archives cannot be accessed by the public. I felt that this was a very important thing for Argentina to do because history should be shared with the public and not hidden in any way. I found it interesting that there were many younger people working at the national archives and it made me wonder if this was some kind of internship for them or if they were pursuing working there as a career. After going to the national archives we went to lunch at La Parolaccia which was very good and did not take quite as long as some of our other meals. After walking for some time and seeing dancers in the street, we saw people walking to honor those who were lost during the last military dictatorship in Argentina from government-forced disappearances. It was unexpected and really an amazing thing to see even though there was not a lot of people involved in it. It’s the kind of thing that isn’t just the sightseeing you can do when you visit any country, but something that is specific to Argentina and particularly Buenos Aires. I realize more and more each day how big this city is and how much it has happening within it. Although it may be exhausting, it’s amazing how much we can accomplish and see everyday.     

Today can be summed up in two simple words: walking and learning. When the charter bus showed up and the front of the hotel this morning, we assumed we would be in for a relaxing day of sightseeing, including visits to important historical sites. However, what we did not realize exactly how much we would be walking! According to my iPhone Health App, we walked over 22,000 steps, accounting for almost 5 miles of walking (and we have not even gone to dinner yet!) But while our feet were sore by the end of the excursions, I believe there was a positive correlation between the amount of walking and the amount we learned. Today’s focus: the barrios of San Telmo and Puerto Madero.

Our first stop of the day of excursions was visiting the shops of San Telmo. We were able to see what a traditional market looks like, as well as see where the world-famous San Telmo Flea Market takes place every Sunday. Soon after, we walked to our first historical site: Zanjon de Granados and the Casa Minima. Zanjon is a museum in the heart of the neighborhood that is dedicated to showcasing the architecture of the neighborhood during the 17th-19th century. Once an semi-open home with 3 courtyards greeting guests as their entered, this site is was recently been covered to secure its reconstructed beauty. Throughout its years as a home, Zanjon served several purposes: a home for the wealthy then a safe haven for immigrants as a tenement. By examining the different bricks and water systems, archaeologists were able to identify exact purposes of each fun for the different people occupying the house. One of the biggest archaeological discoveries of this house was a tunnel system that was used for drainage. It can be determined that this was installed early when the wealth held occupancy, because it was a rare and costly amenity to have. A fun fact about the water system is that the family used turtles as cleaning tactic to eat and remove algae from their water to make it drinkable.

Underground Tunnels in Zanjon

Apart from the physical aspects of the house, due to our intelligent guide, we learned about the different ethnic influences on architecture during the 18th and 19th centuries. After the revolution, many people in Buenos Aires began to resent traditional Spanish practices. Many demonstrated this by crafting their houses to resemble other European cultures. The favorite among the wealthy was to have their houses resemble French culture. On the other hand, many not-as-affluent residencies resembled those of the Italian culture. This was because many Italians migrated to Argentina during the 18th and 19th centuries because the government hired people to market Argentina as a profitable location with a lot of land. When they immigrated, the Italians brought their traditions along with them. There was such a strong Italian influence that, at one point, their were more people who spoke Italian than those who spoke Spanish. To make sure that Spanish remained the national language, the government required students to attend an “immersion school” where they learned Spanish, the national anthem, and other traditional Argentine customs. They wanted to reduce the diversity in order to bring everyone together.

Group Picture After Visit

When we were done with the tour of Zanjon, we crossed the street and saw La Casa Minima. This was the smallest house in Buenos Aires when it was still being used as a house. While this “house” contained only a single-claustrophobic room, the house was filled with history. It was originally a part of a much larger mansion, but when slavery was abolished by the constitution in the mid-19th century, the family divided up different parts of their mansion and gave them to their former slaves so they could continue working as servants.  When Yellow Fever and Cholera infected San Telmo, the wealthy inhabitants fled to the countryside, leaving their abandoned homes in the hands of their former slaves. Because the Africans stayed behind, many were killed by the disease. This is one reason why there is not a large African American presence in Argentina today.

La Casa Minima

After Zanjon and Las Casa Minima, we continued our day by walking about the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it began to rain, but that did not stop us from seeing all the Argentinian cartoons that have been made into statues and strategically placed around the neighborhood. After our walking tour of San Telmo, it was finally time for lunch! We ate at Cafe de San Juan and enjoyed a typical Italian-inspired Argentine meal.

Street Art in San Telmo

After lunch our endeavor for 10 miles of walking continues by walking the near-bye neighborhood of Puerto Madero. While Puerto Madero was one of the original 3 port locations in Buenos Aires back in the early centuries as a city, it was recently become a popular destination in BA. Today, it is the newest district and in order to live in the neighborhood, one must have an extremely well paying job or have a nice trust fund from daddy sitting in the bank. According to our guide, over 70% of the people who live in the district only live in BA for 2 months a year: it is essentially their vacation home. As we walked, be saw the skyscraper apartments, beautiful plaza, and finished off be walking through the conservatory.

OHIO at the Puerto Madero Conservatory

By the end of the day, and after all the walking, I was more than ready for a siesta!

On Tuesday May 19th, we took an excursion to San Telmo to tour the Zanjon de Granados museum. The Zanjon, which means creek, was an abandoned house/property that was first bought with the intentions to invest to the neighborhood, however, the owner discovered a tunnel in the back of the house. The owner hired archeologists from the University of Buenos Aires and they found signs that the house was once used to run a colonial drainage system and ran to a creek.

 This is where water was filtered and cleaned of sediments.

You can see lighter spots where the archeologists broke through to explore the tunnel.

This ended up being one of the first private archeological works and it is very fascinating how this property was built on the southern creek that led to the river. The tunnel was separated by house so that each neighbor could privately use their tunnel. The entire restoration process took about 20 years and it is believed that it took about 50 years to tunnel the whole stream.

The tunnel that used to have cement walls for separation between neighbors homes. 

One house had a pile of trash clogged in their tunnel. After archeologists removed the trash one of the families bedroom collapsed into the basement.

In 1871, the house was bought out and drained and turned into a tenement house for mostly Italian immigrants. These immigrants were indentured servants in this house for almost 100 years. It was very interesting to be able to see first hand the changes that were made to convert the house from a drainage system over a creek into a slave tenement house. We could see how big rooms were turned into smaller rooms with bars on the windows and lower entrances.

The Zanjon requires a lot of funding from governments and events they host such as banquet and tours. The museum is not quite ready to be fully opened yet but is a great establishment for so much history and culture. All in all, we had the chance to learn a lot of history that pertains to Spanish America and developments of the unique mixture of culture between the Natives, Spanish and French from the Zanjon.

Smaller rooms for slaves with bars on the windows.

You can still see the brick and adobe from the original house.

Something you won’t normally see, the bottom of a well. 

On Thursday May 14, the talk of the town in Buenos Aires was that evening’s fútbol match between crosstown rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. Any game between these two teams is an automatic superclásico, and in this case a spot in the international Copa Libertador quarterfinals was at stake. Tickets sold for OSU v. Michigan prices—up to 600USD.

Walking down the street that evening, we heard sirens and saw a string of motorcycle police approach–a crime wave? High speed chase? No, it was the River Plate team bus and their police escort headed to Boca’s stadium, La Bombonera (“chocolate box”). Cars honked and passersby yelled, and not just because the bus snarled traffic; Boca supporters hate the Plate and the feeling is mutual.

We joined the other porteños in watching the game on TV. The city came to a standstill. The first half ended in a scoreless tie, but the crowd provided its own entertainment with signal flares, drones, and banners. The stadium rocked.

As the teams gathered to enter the field for the second half, the River Plate players ran out of their tunnel shouting and clutching their eyes. Someone had sprayed pepper gas into the tunnel.

In real time no one knew what had happened. Players, coaches, police officers, and league administrators wandered around the field for over an hour until the league finally called the game.

Newspapers and TV remain fixated on the incident. Some of the players suffered visible burns.  Boca received a stiff penalty—a forfeit of the match and a four-game suspension from international play.

But for Argentinians the “supershameful” incident sparked a ongoing national discussion about violence and soccer—amplified because a player died as a result of injuries incurred during another match a few days earlier.

The last few days in Buenos Aires have been incredibly exciting. As we begin to settle in, it seems like there is always something new to discover in the city. Today we took bus to San Telmo to see the Zanjon de Granados and the Casa Minima. The Zanjon de Grandos is a museum that is based on the reconstruction of an 1830s house. Zanjon, which means creek, is located where some historians place the first settlement of Buenos Aires. The house was initially bought to be turned into a restaurant, but the owner discovered that there was much more to his new purchase than he anticipated.  He stumbled upon underground tunnels which were believed to be part of colonial water systems. The tunnels linked various neighboring houses together. By stumbling upon this hidden aspect of the land, a lot was learned about the history of Buenos Aires. It was interesting to think about if the owner didn’t find the tunnels. That would mean a lot of history of the city would never have been uncovered. Zanjon used to be under a creek that ran in the tunnels. When the owner of the house decided on restoring his purchase, it became a beautiful house. It was a home for the wealthy. One key part of that was that the house had its own water system. It would drain rain water and it would be held in a big storage unit. Inside the unit there were turtles that would keep the water clean from algae.  Another interesting part of the house was that it was still under the process of restoration. It’s possible that by continuing to restore the area, even more history can be uncovered. The museum is owned and funded by one man, and he is who led the restoration. He is still alive today. 

The second part of the tour was of the Casa Minima, which translates to small house. This was across the street from the Zanjon de Granados. Casa Minima was the narrowest house in Buenos Aires. It was considered a slave house. It’s connected to a large mansion and once slavery was abolished the freed slaves moved to this narrow home. This was to keep the former slaves close. The home is one bedroom and still has the original door attached to it.

Both the Zanjon de Grandos and Casa Minima were historically rich and were cool to see. Buenos Aires is a city that was influenced by various cultures and that was definitely seen today.

After enjoying a lunch at Cafe San Juan la Cantina, our group walked around in Puerto Madero. This port is one of three ports in Buenos Aires. We strolled the area and saw various statues and fountains. We had some free time to wander around a bird reservation park. It was by lake and had various birds. There was one tree filled with parrots! Among the trees you can see the skyline from where we have previously walked through (Puerto Madero). It was cool to see the contrasting environments.  This was the last thing we did as a group, besides walk and take the bus back to the hotel.

Today was a really exciting day and although there was a lot of walking and some rain involved, the knowledge and experience was worth it!

Basement of Zanjon.

One of three outdoor sections of Zanjon

Tunnels of Zanjon

Casa Minima

Today we arrived in Buenos Aires! After a long plane ride with not too many setbacks, my group was picked up at the airport and driven to the hotel, NH Crillon Buenos Aires. The hotel feels relatively Americanized and it is right across from a large park and next to a pharmacy and a few restaurants. When I got to the hotel, I had about an hour to get myself settled until we got on our bus with our guide, Adriana, and drove to an Argentinian “street festival” by the Tigre River and Rio de la Plata. On the drive to the river, we went through Buenos Aires and Adriana pointed out many points of interest. I noticed that the city seemed very centered around art and sculptures and can’t wait to go get a closer look at them. We also drove by the law school, which is completely free for students!

When we got off the bus, we had about 40 minutes to buy food before our boat tour. My group found a cute little street shop where we got “choripan,” a type of sandwich with a sliced sausage and vegetables inside. We then made our way back onto the bus and towards the river. At the river, we boarded a boat and began sailing. Near the main boat center, there were a few large buildings backing up to the water and lots of palm trees. We also sailed past a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and water park. One thing I found really interesting about the river was the color. Because the water comes from a waterfall, it contains a lot of sediment, so it is a light brown color. It almost looks like chocolate milk. Our boat started from an inlet and when you got to where the inlet met the river, you could actually see a line where the water went from normal-looking to brown.

As we made our way down the river, we saw many people (natives and tourists) enjoying it. There were many people on boats and kayaks. Farther down the river, there were a lot of houses with docks on the river. There are no roads that go to these houses, so the residents have to work their lives completely around the river. For example, there are schools and churches along the river that residents can get to by boat. They also have specific boats to bring them services, such as doctor boats, supermarket boats, and kiosk boats. One surprising thing about this lifestyle is that they do not have running water. Residents get their water from the river and purify it themselves and use it to bathe and for other reasons. However, they cannot drink this water. They must buy bottled water to drink and cook with. I also was surprised by the fact that many of these houses had dogs as pets and I saw hardly any strays.

When we got back to the hotel, we had time to get ready and then went to dinner at an Argentinian buffet. There were many foods that I had never seen before and a ton of meat. Everything was very good! My favorite thing that I ate was the fruit dipped in the chocolate fountain. After dinner, we walked back to the bus stop and made our way back to the hotel. From the hotel, a smaller group of us went and walked to a nearby Irish pub to try some Argentinian beer and talk to each other more. When we finished, we came back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

 (Where the water in the river changes color)  (Our boat)

 (The free law school)

After a laborious and at times uncomfortable flight, I (as well as all my fellow Buckeye classmates) arrived in Buenos Aires on a beautiful day. Our first adventure in Argentina’s capital? A boat tour of the Tigre Delta and Rio de la Plata. Although exhausted, I enjoyed the bus ride to the Delta, learning about the city and being able to see different parts of it. We also had our first immersive experience at the Puerto de Frutos, exploring the market and attempting to communicate with locals. Suffice to say it was a success because no one got lost, so we made our way to the boat tour. Once on board the lofty barco we cast off, searching the horizon for information regarding this place. Well, to start it was iterated time and time again that the water of the Delta was not polluted. It is brown because of the sediment brought in from the Iguazu falls and other sources that feed the river. Many people rowed down the river and it was shared that the Delta is Argentina’s rowing capital! The river was lined with a plethora of diverse and historical buildings. One such building a replica one of Domingo Sarmiento’s three houses on the “islands”. Further down the river interestingly enough was a child’s amusement park (Parque de la Costa), serving as a form of entertainment to draw crowds to el Tigre. We passed many houses on the banks of the islands, however these houses don’t have running water! They take water from the river and treat it themselves with chlorine or bleach to use. But for drinking and cooking, bottled water is used. For residents of the islands to get basic societal needs, boats bring doctors, dentists, groceries, there’s even an ice cream boat! El Rio de la Plata is integral for Argentina, but despite its functionality, there exists a wide variety of activities and lifestyles along its banks. Although all of us were drained from our travels, gaining this insight into Argentina and Buenos Aires was well worth the weariness.