Join us in exploring one of the most emblematic neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, home to tango poets, writers, artists, and most important of all: Footballers! On our Free Tour of La Boca you will walk through the most colourful neighbourhood of the Argentinean capital - one that has contributed the most to the country’s strong popular culture since the 19th century.
Discover how the neighbourhood was born together with the foundation of the city, and how it developed during the 19th century due to the arrival of countless immigrants. Hear more about how these immigrants (the majority of whom were from Italy) arrived in Argentina in search of employment opportunities, and eventually settled around the harbour, an industrial area where it was easier to find work. Admire the houses built with leftover materials from the shipyards (which mostly consisted of metal sheets and wood) and were then painted in many strong and bold colours which can still be seen today.
Visit one of the most important and legendary football stadiums in the world, La Bombonera (famously known as being the home of the Boca Juniors), and learn the history of how this sport - which is like a religion in Argentina - arrived with the English sailors who played ball in the port. Dig deep into one of the most intense and passionate football rivalries in the world: River Plate and Boca Juniors, both of which were born here in La Boca and continue to fight for the throne of the biggest club in South America.
Understand the magnetism that the neighbourhood has had for artists in the last century, to the point where so many pictorial schools grew in the area that they eventually were combined into the La Boca Pictorial School. Also learn how the opposition to most artistic movements helped root the popular and proletariat culture of the immigrants who arrived from Europe to the neighbourhood.
Very few quarters on the American continent have been as influential in popular culture quite like La Boca: From a Bohemia so distant from the bourgeoisie elites, to the birth of the biggest cultural phenomena in the country: Football. On our Free Tour of Las Boca you will understand the origins and the ingredients that helped give shape to the eclectic popular culture of Buenos Aires, which arrived to the rich New World from all corners of Europe – but most especially from the Mediterranean.
