http://www.fineartphotoblog.com/architecture/la-boca-buenos-aires-argentina

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WHERE IS LA BOCA?
http//www.fineartphotoblog.com/architecture/la-bo
ca-buenos-aires-argentina
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http//www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/south-america/arg
entina/buenos-aires/
La Boca is an Italian enclave located
in southeast Buenos Aires, Argentina, near its
port. La Boca sits at the mouth of the Rio de la
Plata.
http//www.yendor.com/vanished/detention/map.html
La Boca is located at 35S, 58W.
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What is an ethnic enclave?
An ethnic enclave is a neighborhood, district,
or suburb which retains some cultural
distinction from a larger, surrounding area.
Usually the enclave revolves around businesses
that are run by the group of people who live in
the neighborhood.
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There is a saying in Argentina Mexicans
descended from the Aztecs. Peruvians descended
from the Incas. But we descended from boats.
The ancestors of about 95 percent of
Argentinas population came by boat from Europe,
mostly from Italy and Spain.
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All photos without URLs are by Glenda Sullivan.
La Bocas brightly painted houses form a
kaleidoscope of color on its cobblestone
streets. Early Italian inhabitants were poor and
worked in the nearby port. They used paint
left from painting boats to paint their houses.
There was never enough paint to paint one house
in all one color therefore, they became
multicolored.
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Six million foreign immigrants came to Argentina
between 1880-1930. About half were Italian and
they came from the port town of Genoa, Italy. La
Boca was a port familiar to them so they did not
move far from where they first stepped ashore.
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Italian immigrants constructed their houses from
scrap corrugated metal and wood from the
shipyard. To spruce them up, the facades, doors,
and windows were decorated in bright colors from
leftover paint in the port.
8
La Boca is the oldest, most authentic and
colorful neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It has
been described as a country inside the city of
Buenos Aires.
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The immigrants socialized on outdoor patios in
the center of the tenement/shared houses. They
played their musical instruments to each other
after a hard days work in the shipyards,
warehouses and meat packing plants.
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Tango music was born around 1870 in Buenos Aires.
It is debated where it actually began in the
city.
La Boca claims it started in this neighborhood.
Tango music first came out of the immigrant
environmentpacked tenement houses where many
different cultures and types of music mixed in
close proximity. From this melting pot of styles
around the world, tango music arose.
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http//www.buenostours.com/caminito
Caminito means walkway in English, so caminito is
often translated to mean little walk way,
little path, little road or little street.
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http//www.buenostours.com/caminito
Caminito is La Bocas most famous street, named
after a popular tango song
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Today tango artists perform in La Boca. There
are many tango clubs, little tourist shops,
Italian taverns and restaurants.
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Tango dancers perform in the streets of La Boca
while tango music drifts through the air from
bars and restaurants.
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Soccer is a very popular sport in Argentina.
The La Boca Junior Soccer Club, one of the most
important clubs in Buenos Aires, is based in La
Boca.
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Today La Boca is partly an artist colony, but
mostly a working class neighborhood. Genoese
dialect is still the spoken language of the older
generation, but most of the young people speak
only Spanish.
17
http//www.panoramasource.com/gallery-la-boca-ship
-panorama-1.php
The port at La Boca is now abandoned due to silt
up and industrial pollution.
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The following slides are sample DOK test
items for this lesson.
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• What is the one unique, identifying
  characteristic in La Boca not usually seen
• in other ethnic enclaves?
• Buildings are old.
• Multicolored houses are plentiful.
• Tenement/shared family houses are common.
• Cobblestone streets are well maintained.

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• Finding a common language, race, music and dance,
  customs and
• shared history is most necessary when identifying
  which of the
• following?
• ethnic enclaves
• world religions
• government systems
• economic indicators

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• What is the name of the dance, popular
• in La Boca and throughout Argentina,
• which is illustrated here?
• square dance
• waltz
• fox trot
• tango

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Demographics of Argentina in the 21st Century
Ancestry of Descendents
Location Where Descendents Live
Spanish All provinces
Italians Buenos Aires
Welsh Patagonian Chubut Valley
German Swiss Cordoba province, Patagonian region
French Buenos Aires city and province
Syrian Lebanese Urban areas
Sweden, Norway Denmark Buenos Aires and Patagonian region
English Irish Buenos Aires and Patagonian region
Polish, Hungarian Romanian Buenos Aires city and province
Greece Buenos Aires and Santa Fe province
Portuguese Buenos Aires city and province
Russian, Ukrainian Lithuanian Buenos Aires city and province
Croatian Slovenia Buenos Aires
Serbia Chaco Province
Armenian Patagonian Chubut Valley
Mestizo All provinces
Indigenous Indians Provinces in north, northwest south

• What conclusion can be drawn from the information
  in this chart?
• The Patagonia is the most populated region in
  Argentina.
• Descendents from Scandinavia live in all
  provinces of Argentina.
• Argentines are a mixture of diverse national and
  ethnic groups.
• The indigenous Argentine population is almost
  extinct.