A la radio de Balvanera ....
- Karin Dhadamus
- Sep 23, 2016
- 2 min read
Tomorrow I talk. I talk on the radio of my adopted 'barrio' Balvanera. Radio AM1010 Onda Latina, in "El Buho de Balvanera". Galletano Zemborain will be interviewing me. I feel honored !
But before I talk, I let him talk . I received so much info on my barrio during the phone call inviting me for the radio interview of this coming Saturday I could hardly follow. Few locals know and even lesser tourists know that Balvanera is one of the most historical neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires.
So how to make sense of his quickly shared knowledge!
There is the Plaza Miserere, 4 blocks away from where I live in my very own boutique hotel "Marcel de Buenos Aires" on calle Venezuela. The square used to host the first fruit & vegetable and animal market of the city. It is also the place from where the first railroad was built. The line 'La Portena' connected the square with Tribunales. From here postal horse wagons left Once to Floresta.
North of the square you will find a tobacco store 'Tabaqueria Manrique', where Che Guevara used to buy his cigars. Che was not the only famous neighbour of the barrio. Cause Balvanera is also where Carlos Gardel grew up. His house, now a museum, is in Balvanera.
A few blocks south of the square is the Congreso, the national congress building whose construction was finalised under the auspices of the Belgian architect Jules Dormal. The Palacio de Aguas Argentinas is yet another emblematic building of the barrio.
Diagonally across the square sits the 'La Perla' hotel. Run down and old fashioned, this building by architect Colombo was where once the first rock concerts were held. Here the porteno locals, - amongst them no one less then Borges, - used to get together.
In Balvanera dozens of tango songs were written too: El Tropezon, tango Maria...
Correct me if I am wrong and fill me in where I miss .... but needless to say... there is a lot and so much more to say about Balvanera. And to my knowledge, it is time to write a book on and about the barrio.
So put it in your agendas, as tomorrow, I will tell you about my Alejandro Christophersen building !
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