La Boca and football

In 1905, the historic and world-renowned Club Atlético Boca Juniors was born. Its founders decided that the new club would bear the name of the neighbourhood, accompanied by the term 'Juniors', a common practice to give greater prestige to institutions, although in this case the contrast of the name was notorious, due to the reputation of being a 'difficult' and marginal neighbourhood, which La Boca had gained at that time. Many of Boca's fans were Italians, mostly Genoese, who lived in the area. In 1914 the club was about to leave the neighbourhood when the management obtained some land in the Wilde area. In 1940, La Bombonera stadium was built.

Everywhere we went in La Boca, there were images, statues, and tacky souvenirs of both Diego Maradona (often shown with the Pope Francis!) and Lionel Messi. All of the buildings in the neighbourhood, as well as the stadium itself, are painted in vivid blue and bright yellow.

Talking of the club colours, Vito told us the story of how they were chosen. Apparently, the powers that be couldn't decide, so they agreed to adopt the colours of the flag of origin of the next ship that came into the port. That ship happened to be from Sweden - hence, blue and yellow!Read more