The Architect of Caminito
By the late 1950s, La Boca had drastically changed from the turn of the 20th century - most of the colorful, ragtag conventillo housing that had been spread throughout most of the barrio had been pulled down, being replaced by dull houses and blocks of flats. But this was the very essence of La Boca being destroyed, its history, and not everybody was going to sit back and watch that happen.
Benito Quinquela Martin, an abandoned orphan who was adopted by a Genoese immigrant couple in La Boca, was the man to take action. He had become the most significant painter in Argentina, with his dramatic paintings of the port of La Boca, and achieved worldwide recognition. But as La Boca was his inspiration, and had provided him with family, friends and shelter after having been orphaned at an early age, he felt he owed the barrio something in return.
Therefore in 1959, Quinquela Martin and his artist friends created the street of Caminito, as a means of recreating the way the old La Boca used to look - a reminder of where everyone had come from, not just in La Boca, but in all of Buenos Aires and Argentina, because this barrio and its port had been the gateway for many immigrants into the city, as well as into the interior parts of Argentina. Of course these are the very same immigrants who went on to make Buenos Aires and Argentina what they are today. Later Puerto Madero and Puerto Nuevo were built in the early 1900s as replacements to the port in La Boca.
The World’s First Outdoor Pedestrian Museum
What Quinquela Martin did was to rescue bits and pieces of the original immigrant conventillos that were being torn down and replaced, and used them to create a concentrated conventillo community around this small street, in what is essentially an uninhabited open-air art and history exhibit, and officially the world’s first outdoor pedestrian museum. What an accolade!
In summary, Caminito is really a boiled-down representation of the historical, immigrant-filled neighborhood of La Boca recreated by a master artist raised just around the corner. Therefore Caminito is actually a lot more authentic than most people will tell you.
It is still an exhibit, so nobody actually lives in the Conventillos along Caminito. You will see washing lines strung between walls in the stereotypical Italian way, but they are just for show, and all part of Quinquela Martin’s intended work of art, which I think should be respected for acting as a reminder of this barrio and the city’s immigrant roots.
