My husband and I recently had an opportunity to spend a long weekend in the “City of Fair Winds,” Buenos Aires, Argentina. This current name is an abbreviation of the city’s original name, Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa Maria del Buen Ayre, by Spanish explorers who recognized the fresh air in the original malaria-free port of San Telmo, named for the patron saint of seafarers.
On a daylong private tour, we visited this original port area and were surprised by cobbled streets and brightly mismatched buildings that hearken back to the humble origins of the neighborhood. Originally an immigrant barrio first settled in the 1500s, the neighborhood eventually became a rough shipyard area. By the mid-1800s, it was largely filled with Italian immigrants. They could not afford paint for the rough shacks they built there, so they used leftovers from boats in port and cobbled together patchwork exteriors. More immigrants arrived from all over Europe, and in this raucous mix of culture, the Argentine tango was born.
