Discover the heart of the country that gave us the Tango with The Real Argentina culture guide. Argentina is a rich cultural melting pot — a unique mixture of European and Latin American influences which are reflected in its innovative music, literature and lifestyle.
The friendly and passionate people are what make Argentina such a warm and welcoming place. The combination of urban glamour, underground traditions, and vast wilderness give vibrancy and character to the country’s cultural landscape.
Argentine culture caters to all tastes: take in a game of football at the famous La Bombonera stadium, peruse the modern art at MALBA, or dance the Tango at a milonga in Buenos Aires.
By design, there is little monotony in the life of a freelance foreign correspondent – and that’s what keeps me sane. Moreover, I get to witness events and visit places that most others do not. It’s a great gig, and Argentina is an excellent place to be in business.
Don’t let the following words put you off: Juana Molina is an actress turned musician. Yet her ambient bedroom mixes remain warm sounding, luscious even, and ruefully manage to skip over the ‘that’s interesting’ which experimental music often elicits, to be gorgeous cross over music, soundtracking dinner parties in Buenos Aires and across the world.
For an interesting change from Buenos Aires’ main museums and impressive art galleries, let’s get boho-pretentious in a city that is all about the arty parties.
Don’t worry if you didn’t catch Argentina’s opening match against England in the Rugby World Cup on 10 September. It was as poor a game as you could ever hope to miss. England scraped through 13–9 in the end, but looked less like the world-class side they are and more like 15 blokes who had…
Unlike 1983 (the cathartic first free elections after seven years of military rule), 2003 (the return to some kind of normality after the economic emergencies of 2001/2) and 2007 (the swearing-in of Argentina’s first elected woman president), 2011 isn’t shaping up to be a “transformational” election. Rather, 23 October 2011 will be a day when voters wrestle with one of the oldest and most straightforward dilemmas in electoral politics: namely, do we want more of the same, or shall we give someone else a whirl?
Considering that barely a ball has been kicked in Argentina in the last couple of weeks, it’s been a tumultuous time for the Argentinian football. Firstly the sacking of the manager of the national team after the lackluster showing at the Copa America in the homeland, the Tevez and Aguero saga at Manchester City and – oh yes – the biggest shake up of the Argentinian league game for, well, ever, to a system so revolutionary that no team will ever have to be relegated again.
Argentinian primera división (top division) football is full of historical rivalries that are both notorious and colourful. This footballing folklore more often than not manifests itself in cheeky banter between opposing sets of fans. At times it famously descends into wanton violence. Teams define themselves by who they despise. Chants that can be heard in stadia every weekend are full of such insulting language about opponents that uttering such things publicly in most countries would get you arrested.
Two games into the 2011 Copa América, and things aren’t looking good for the host country. An astonishing one-one draw with Bolivia (Bolivia!) was followed by a nil-nil result against Colombia (Colombia!). Eek.
There comes a time in everyone’s visit to Buenos Aires where they would turn to me and say: “Daniel, you basically live in New York/Paris/Barcelona/Madrid”. It is at this point that I would buy them a subte coin, descend down to the depths of the blue line and take them to Retiro.
June and July are ripe months for cultural and sporting events in Argentina. The weather begins to get a bit chilly, and thoughts of museums, galleries and cultural events take over from beaches, barbecues and mate in the park.
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