The memory of Villa Crespo

Since Buenos Aires' strong growth in the XVIII century, barrios identified and named by their parishes appeared. During the XIX centrury and the beginning of the XX century, economic growth and emerging metropolization in Buenos Aires, the barrios grew rapidly. Several followed the railway enabling the poor to work in the city while living economically outside or in the periphery.

The barrios generated communities with their own clubs, cafes, schools and soccer teams. Like in every big city, this created powerful barrio identity, but in Buenos Aires this was stronger. The barrios of Buenos Aires are really small villages grown together and is carefully defined within this and that street and this and that corner. Between them are rivalry and imperialism.

The barrios has their own football teams, Atalanta belonging to Villa Crespo, Boca to Boca, River Los millionarios in the affluent northern neighborhoods of Nuñez and so on. A friend told me that his father took him to a Racing-match when he was three. From then on, supporting another team than Racing, would be treason. You are born to a club, you don´t choose one. Serious stuff.

Lately the real estate market have changed the borders between the barrios. Trendy San Telmo eats less fancy Montserrat. Uptown Belgrano comsumes parts of Nuñez. Hot Palermo consumes Colegiales. Rich Devoto have eaten Villa Real. In this context Palermo is the most interesting and disturbing case as the first imperialist barrio. The success of Colegiales becoming Palermo Hollywood has generated Palermo Soho and now real estate managers want to expand Palermo to the west, branding the central barrio Villa Crespo as Palermo Queens. Fact is, if Buenos Aires has a Soho, it ought to be the southern and less fancy barrio Barracas.

With the tango, the coffee and the soccer in the historic billiard bar San Bernardo on the edge of what the real estate agents wants to baptize Queens, those who have lived in Villa Crespo their whole life and gone to the same cafe for coffee every day do not like this palermization.

"We do not want the barrio to turn commercial and risk losing its identity. We want it to keep its soccer team Atalanta and its traditional places, like San Bernardo. A movie theatre would be nice and so would a shopping mall. Weekends on the corner of Scalabrini Ortíz and Corrientes we used to meet and hang out before taking off for the hottest boliche at the time."

The neigbourhood wants to preserve their tangible and intangible heritage. The tangible being the architecture, the streets, the aesthetics of the neighbourhood. The intangible being the memory, the culture and the local costums. In Villa Crespo that means a crucible mix of people and race, being the neighbourhood of imigrants and the tango. This is not some local idea, but governmental norm, working to keep the neighbourhoods history and thinking of ways the young people will appreciate the local touch and culture and make it their own.


This one speaks for itself.






These three fellas shared Vasco Viejo and bread - Barrabravas de River, barrabravas being the porteño version of hooligans..

..he-he, a few years since they fought their counterparts in Boca, though.. now the brothers Alan and William Schlenker want to be in command, but Adrián Rousseau is still the big (mafia?) boss while the Schlenkers are waiting for trial in jail.




Juggling in the streets at red light.











Where they receive "all metal" in Villa Crespo.







Some parts of the city are more attractive on the real estate market that others, and so the porteños now see some barrios claming parts of another.

Another defining Villa Crespo corner.








Line 84 in Caballito.










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Lunchtime Acevedo/Castillo. Churipan y media/media, sausage in bread with half and half red wine and soda.