Guest blog post by @VagaBen

There are many interesting theories on how La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, got its unusual name. The most common theory is that the neighborhood got the name La Boca, “The Mouth”, after the close by harbor which is shaped as a mouth. A more interesting theory is that when the conquistadors arrived to the area they were met by a native tribe who supposedly practiced cannibalism. While these theories can be discussed for ages, there is no need to discuss that La Boca is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in South America.

Today, La Boca is one of the poorest neighborhoods, or barrios as they are called on native tongue, in Buenos Aires. But what they lack in money and wealth, they compensate with culture, passion and history. The Barrios is most famous for its football team La Boca Juniors, and Caminito, the street of colored houses. While the area is often stamped as a tourist trap, the place is still a must go for anyone visiting Buenos Aires. The touristic facade might feel fake, but the history is not.

“Boca Beach”: The industrial pollution around the old port has become a huge danger for the inhabitants of La Boca

From 1895 to 1914 almost 4 million people immigrated to Argentina, which was a doubling of the population in just 20 years! Most of the immigrants were poor people from Spain and Italy searching for a new beginning in a new country. One of the groups that stood out was the immigrants from Genoa, Italy. They were used to work at the docks, and when they arrived at the docks off Buenos Aires with nothing to go to they just as well settled where there was work they knew, forming the harbor barrio La Boca. The neighborhood still preserves their cultural heritage to Genova. Many still claim the Genovian white and red crossed flag to be the flag of La Boca, and the football team shirt carry an inscription saying “Los Xeneizes” which is a Genoese word for The Genoans.

Caminito – The Street of Colored houses in La Boca

For visitors to La Boca, the colored house area is usually on the top “to-see”. Sadly enough, the place has been destroyed by tourism, and the houses that stand their today are new built to satisfy the visiting tourists and empty their money for souvenirs. But the houses still helps to tell the story of the immigrants that lived there, and still live in the areas around. As previously mentioned, when the Genovans and other immigrants arrived, they were more or less broke. So in order to build houses, they had to scrape together what they found lying on the docks and on the garbage fields of the nearby factories. Since there weren’t enough tin or plank to build a house singularly of one material, they simply had to mix the materials together. That’s why you can see houses built with small parts of tin and small parts of plank.

The already shabby looking houses were made even more depressing with the brown/gray color used for painting. Since they couldn’t afford paint, they had to do the same as they did for material, mix everything they had together. A local artist was frustrated by the dark and dirty look of the neighborhood and came up with a brilliant suggestion. Instead of mixing the colors, why didn’t they just paint the house with the colors they had? The word spread, and soon you could see hundreds of houses that all were painted with green, blue, red, yellow and black areas.  That’s how the buildings of La Boca got their Colorful look.

One of the few football grounds in the barrio.

Football in Argentina is bigger than anything else. The national team is almost treated like religion, and the club teams are only a small stretch behind. La Boca Juniors is the pride and glory of the barrio. The team has also become a symbol of the poor people in Buenos Aires and Argentina in general. This is best shown in the local derby match against the northern team River, also called “Los millionaros”. The story behind La Boca’s Blue and yellow color is also a fascinating story. In order to depress the growing rebel of the Genovans in La Boca, their flag in red and white were forbidden area. In order to pick a new color for their team, they agreed upon taking the color of the first ship that arrived on the port. The ship happened to be Swedish, and the team still carries the blue and yellow colors of the Swedish flag! Ironically enough, Red and White is now the color of their most fierce opponent River.

If you ever happen to find yourself In Buenos Aires, do not hesitate on visiting La Boca. Some claim it’s too much of a tourist hotspot, others claim it’s too dangerous.  Like most things in life; it is what you make it. If you only take a stroll down the tourist lane with no interest to the history or the culture behind it; it will be boring. If you run around with your brand new PLR camera and push it into strangers faces; it will be dangerous. However, if you act like a backpacker with interest for local culture and respect for local habitants I can assure you that you will have a great time! To watch La Boca Juniors play at the Bombanera or watch a local tango show at a worn out bar can make for lifelong memories that you’ll never forget. I know I haven’t.

Ben Kvamstad

This article was written by Ben Kvamstad who daily works as an editor for Backpack South America. Ben travelled around South America for 3 months earlier this year while working on his articles, Guides and travel stories. You can find more of Ben’s work over at his Travel Blog – VagaBen.

Tags: Buenos Aires, Guest Blogger, La Boca