Buenos Aires
HISTORY, provided for visiting passengers on HOLLAND AMERICA cruise-ships, 2004.
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The Bohemian Quarter of Buenos Aires is Argentina's most famous tourist spot. It has, like the city itself, adapted to change in a laid-back, Old European style.
When fishermen could no longer find a viable life here, the artists and traders took over. . . and have never looked back.
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There are two things of which I am proud:
my love for the people and my hatred
for the landed oligarchy.
-Eva Peron (Evita) (b. 1919), wife of former Argentine president Juan Peron.
THE ROMANTIC BACKDROP for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, Buenos Aires is indeed a legendary city. The Argentine people did adore their tragic Eva Peron, but there was a price for the attention. Turmoil has often visited the southern nation and economic woes from the Peron era continue to reverberate in periods of doubt and occasional social upheaval. In 1990, a new era finally dawned, and stability came for the first time in decades, but by 2000, with the peso continuing to spiral downward and banks calling international loans, Argentina once again faced dire economic straits. The trouble continues. (In March 2004, the President refused to repay interest on Argentine’s IMF loans until the World Bank agreed to lend more money! We were told in BA that, “While we work hard and pay our debts, no Argentine political leader ever pays civic or national debts. Why should he, when living on available credit is so easy?”- ht)
South American societies had long been established when European explorers arrived in the 16th century. Most of the indigenous people in the Pampas and Patagonia were nomads, following the wild guanaco herds that still roam the region. A second favorite in the local diet was the rhea, an ostrich-like bird that also still lives in the south. The hunters enjoyed a rather idyllic existence, so it is no wonder they were not exactly welcoming to the invaders. Of course, they were even less pleased when the Spaniards began to enslave them under the policies of the encomienda system. The Europeans were anxious to mine gold and silver, and saw the indigenous people as the means by which it would happen profitably. Under the system, the government required overseers to teach Christianity and Spanish language, supposedly as equitable compensation for the moral transgression of slavery, but it is doubtful that natives ever realized much benefit from these "gifts."
Pedro de Mend6za established a riverside city in 1536. leading more than 1,500 people, The Spaniard had planned to arrive at the end of winter. He could not have realized that seasons in the Southern Hemisphere were reversed, so it was the end of Austral summer and the settlers had no time to plant food crops. There were plenty of fish in the rivers, but they nearly starved the first year. They gradually migrated inland and ultimately settled at Asunci6n, the dominant regional city until silver mining operations made the port at Buenos Aires grow. After repelling a British attack in 1807, Argentina declared independence. Napoleon had conquered most of Europe, and by the time the Spanish monarchy was finally restored, it was too late.
Conflict between landowners of the Pampas and Buenos Aires' merchant class erupted. After a long period of oppressive rule under General Rosas, a coalition force took over the government and a wave of new immigrants flooded the city. There was a boom in the early 20th century, but a steel mill strike in the 1920s was squashed, and the ensuing years saw the return of a severe regime.
Eva Duarte was born to a peasant family during the troubled era. She met and fell in love with Juan Per6n and became a rags-to-riches legend. The Per6n years were wrought with corruption and mismanagement, however, and Argentina paid dearly for them in later decades. The low point in the national troubles came in the 1970s with what is now known as “the Dirty War." Many citizens, mostly young men, vanished, and families have never learned what happened to their loved ones. Mothers still protest at Plaza de Mayo and have vowed to persist.
Democracy was restored in 1983, and Argentina began to rebuild. Sadly, the new economic crisis has brought uncertainty once again, but even as they struggle to recover, the resilient Argentine people are setting their sights on a
hopeful future. Their pretty city is filled with opulent buildings and monuments representing two roller-coaster centuries. Passion drives the lively portenos, who claim there is little smog because of the adjacent open river (but get behind a diesel-powered vehicle and you may find it hard to agree). Buenos Aires (known affectionately as "BA") is not naturally beautiful. It took a lot of hard work to create the splendid architecture - portenos are anything but lazy. Buenos Aires is surprising. You may expect a Spanish-colonial city, but comparisons are more often made with Paris. Revitalization came in the 20th century as Haussmann's Paris was the center of new architecture. Only the foundations are Spanish and, as in most Spanish-American settlements, the old city surrounds a central plaza bordered by a fort, city hall, and cathedral. When the great re-building took place in the 1930s, styles were anything but Spanish. The city is organized into more than 40 districts, but most visitors spend their time in those that curve along the River Plate between La Boca (the mouth) and Tigre, a delta suburb. The inland districts are mostly residential.
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