Author: bridgetoargentina
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Immigrant Pantry
Foods and drinks like pasta, olive oil, wine, yerba mate served as central commodities around which immigrants formed their identities and communities as newcomers in Argentina. This Italian Immigrant Pantry features typical items that might have appeared in the pantry of an Italian immigrant family around 1920. Whether their sojourn was temporary or permanent, food…
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Cookbooks
While previous generations learned to cook from relatives and friends, many locals and immigrants with sufficient resources bought this encyclopedic cookbook that would teach them how to be an Argentine woman and to cook Argentine food.
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Azur and Abraham: From the Eastern Mediterranean to the Río de la Plata.
In 2022, the Museum of Immigration in Buenos Aires opened its exhibit “From the Eastern Mediterranean to the Río de la Plata”, aiming to make visible the ethnic and religious diversity in Argentina, in part due to the arrival of immigrants from all over the world.
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Italian Art and Architecture in the Chacarita Cemetery
Mirta Roncagalli A few cemeteries in Buenos Aires are true open-air museums. Spaces rich in history and stories tucked between the nooks and crannies of statues, tombs and mausoleums. La Chacarita is one of the most important and impressive cemeteries in the city of Buenos Aires. It not only contains the tombs of relevant figures…
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A Brief History of Italian Immigration in Argentina
Benjamin Bryce, University of British Columbia Italians were the largest group of immigrants to Argentina for more than a century, starting in the 1850s. Significant migration continued after the Second World War, and since then, south-north mobility between Argentina and countries in Europe continues on paths worn by Italians a century before. As Argentine statemen…
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Stop 6: Monument to Columbus
Donated to the Argentine Republic by the Italian community, the Monument to Columbus was sculpted by Arnoldo Zocchi and inaugurated in 1910 during the Centennial celebrations. It aimed to represent what Italians viewed as their gift to Argentina: Columbus’s discovery of America, reframing the figure of Columbus as one claimed by the Italian Argentine community.…
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Stop 5: The British Clock Tower
Affluent British immigrants in Buenos Aires commissioned the British Clock Tower (now called La Torre Monumental) as part of the centennial celebrations. At the inauguration on May 24, 1916, the president of Argentina, the mayor of Buenos Aires, and the British ambassador all attended. The choice of the date was deliberate, as it marked both…
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Stop 4: Monument to France
The Monument to France was designed by Carlos Thays, a French immigrant whose work played a considerable role in the urban renewal of Buenos Aires during this period. Erected on the Plaza Francia, the monument symbolizes the republicanism that France supposedly had gifted to Argentina. On the four sides of the monument are iconic…
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Stop 3: The German Fountain
The German Fountain takes yet another tack but speaks to the common trend of carving out a place for cultural pluralism in the city’s urban landscape. Four naked men in decidedly Greek tradition abut the fountain. They represent livestock breeding (left) and agriculture (right). The agricultural motif is the German claim to their contribution to…
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Stop 2: Monument to Spain
The Spanish monument was designed by Catalan sculptor Agustín Querol Subirats. A large part of the statue was completed in 1914, but a final shipment of the bronze sculptures representing the four regions of Argentina sank en route to Argentina, and the final statue was not unveiled until 1926. Topped with a female figure, it…