San Telmo

We hired a tour guide for a walk, Rafa.

Rafa was a very interesting person, a teacher of both English and Spanish, as well as a tour guide. Rafa himself immigrated from Venezuela 12 years ago. He was happy to learn the history of Argentina through being a tour guide, since he said he felt a little guilty to have made Argentina his home, and not knowing anything much about the history.

The city of San Telmo, was founded in 1871. You will see the monument has a woman in the background, with her hands outstretched to the heavens- it represents a nod to the struggles of the indigenous peoples in Buenos Aires and Argentina throughout the colonization period. He pointed out a red faint outline on one side of her breast in the crevice, which is red paint, the people threw there intentionally, to not only acknowledge these struggles of the indigenous peoples, but the blood spilled.

Rafa told us about how the yellow fever came, the wealthy owning the mansions left their homes for higher ground and they became neglected, hence the poorer people moved to the area- gentrification in reverse. The government wanted to demolish it, while the people didn’t.

The towns people met in the plaza for a town hall of sorts and decided to do a fundraiser of by organizing“an antique fair” of items from the mansions in an effort to save the town. Well, the antique fair was such a success, it drew world attention and the town now holds antique fairs, along the streets on sundays, sort of like a farmers market but with antiques.

This act saved the town, because the government then did not want to lose the tourism, and laws were made to keep the buildings in their original states.

Now it’s an interesting area- with vendors in these old and seemingly neglected mansions, which are fabulous inside.

Rafa showed us some important structures and examples of Art Noveau as well as Art Deco architecture.

The church, pictured also served many purposes for the town.

We went into the market where Rafa got each of us an empanada to choose from, it’s his favorite empanada place. Speaking of empanadas, he explained although each Latin American country has them, each has their own version. Mike got a cheese one, I got chicken and leek, and Rafa got a chorizo vegetable version- he got us a beer and glass of wine. Let me say these empanadas were delicious.

It was a delightful afternoon!Read more