http://www.fineartphotoblog.com/architecture/la-boca-buenos-aires-argentina

WHERE IS LA BOCA?

La Boca is an Italian enclave located insoutheast Buenos Aires, Argentina, nearits port. La Boca sits at the mouth ofthe Rio de la Plata.

La Boca is located at35 S, 58 W.⁰ ⁰

http://www.yendor.com/vanished/detention/map.html

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/south-america/argentina/buenos-aires/

“An ethnic enclave is a neighborhood, district, orsuburb which retains some cultural distinctionfrom a larger, surrounding area. Usually the enclave revolves around businesses that are runby the group of people who live in the neighborhood.”

What is an ethnic enclave?

There is a saying in Argentina: “Mexicans descendedfrom the Aztecs. Peruvians descended from the Incas.But we descended from boats.”

The ancestors of about 95 percent of Argentina’spopulation came by boat from Europe, mostly fromItaly and Spain.

La Boca’s brightly painted houses form a kaleidoscope of color on its cobblestone streets.Early Italian inhabitants were poor and worked in the nearby port. They used paint leftfrom painting boats to paint their houses. There was never enough paint to paint onehouse in all one color; therefore, they became multicolored.

All photos without URLs are by Glenda Sullivan.

Six million foreign immigrants came to Argentina between 1880-1930. About halfwere Italian and they came from the port town of Genoa, Italy. La Boca was a port familiar to them so they did not move far from where they first stepped ashore.

Italian immigrants constructed their houses from scrap corrugated metal andwood from the shipyard. To spruce them up, the facades, doors, and windowswere decorated in bright colors from leftover paint in the port.

La Boca is the oldest, most authentic and colorful neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It has been described as a “country” inside the city of Buenos Aires.

The immigrants socialized on outdoor patios in the center of the tenement/shared houses. They played their musical instruments to eachother after a hard day’s work in the shipyards, warehouses and meat packing plants.

La Boca claims it started inthis neighborhood. Tango musicfirst came out of the immigrant environment—packed tenement houses where many differentcultures and types of music mixed in close proximity. From this melting pot of styles aroundthe world, tango music arose.

Tango music was born around1870 in Buenos Aires. It is debated where it actually beganin the city.

http://www.buenostours.com/caminito

Caminito means walkway in English, so caminito is often translated to mean “little walk way, little path, little road or little street”.

http://www.buenostours.com/caminito

Caminito is La Boca’s most famousstreet, named after a popular tango song

Today tango artists perform in La Boca. There are many tango clubs, little tourist shops, Italian taverns and restaurants.

Tango dancers perform in the streets of La Boca while tango music drifts throughthe air from barsand restaurants.

The La BocaJunior SoccerClub, one of the most importantclubs in BuenosAires, is based in La Boca.

Soccer is a verypopular sport inArgentina.

Today La Boca is partly an artist colony, but mostly a working class neighborhood.Genoese dialect is still the spoken language of the older generation, but most of theyoung people speak only Spanish.

http://www.panoramasource.com/gallery-la-boca-ship-panorama-1.php

The port at La Boca is now abandoned due to silt up and industrialpollution.

The following slides

are sample DOK test

items for this lesson.

What is the one unique, identifying characteristic in La Boca not usually seen in other ethnic enclaves?A. Buildings are old.B. Multicolored houses are plentiful.C. Tenement/shared family houses are common.D. Cobblestone streets are well maintained.

Finding a common language, race, music and dance, customs andshared history is most necessary when identifying which of thefollowing?A. ethnic enclavesB. world religionsC. government systemsD. economic indicators

What is the name of the dance, popularin La Boca and throughout Argentina, which is illustrated here?A. square danceB. waltzC. fox trotD. tango

Spanish All provincesItalians Buenos AiresWelsh Patagonian Chubut ValleyGerman & Swiss Cordoba province, Patagonian regionFrench Buenos Aires city and provinceSyrian & Lebanese Urban areasSweden, Norway & Denmark Buenos Aires and Patagonian regionEnglish & Irish Buenos Aires and Patagonian regionPolish, Hungarian & Romanian Buenos Aires city and provinceGreece Buenos Aires and Santa Fe provincePortuguese Buenos Aires city and provinceRussian, Ukrainian & Lithuanian Buenos Aires city and provinceCroatian & Slovenia Buenos AiresSerbia Chaco ProvinceArmenian Patagonian Chubut ValleyMestizo All provincesIndigenous Indians Provinces in north, northwest & south

Ancestry of Descendents Location Where Descendents Live

Demographics of Argentina in the 21st Century

What conclusion can be drawn from the information in this chart?A. The Patagonia is the most populated region in Argentina.B. Descendents from Scandinavia live in all provinces of Argentina.C. Argentines are a mixture of diverse national and ethnic groups.D. The indigenous Argentine population is almost extinct.