Plaza De Mayo, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is one of the world’s most evocatively named capitals. The name alone can make people feel a kind of dreamy longing for some essential quality that the city embodies. What that essential quality is, however, can be very difficult to pin down.
It took me some time before I began to get any distinct sense of Buenos Aires or the collective pulse of the 13m people who call it their home. Other great Latin American cities derive their character from their geography (the mountains and beaches of Rio De Janeiro, the Andes of Santiago, the Amazon of Manaus) or their history (the odd mix of castles, crumbling facades and communism that defines Havana). Yet with Buenos Aires, the defining feature of its geography is the lack of defining features. It is possible to travel hours and hours in multiple directions from Buenos Aires and encounter only the seemingly endless (actually 750,000 sq km) expanse of plains that the Pampas is famed for. And as for history, the city has been largely rebuilt since the beginning of the 20th century, so the heritage of a city formally founded in 1536 is difficult to see traced on its architecture.
But perhaps the physical shapes described by the city’s geography and buildings are the wrong place to look for its essence. Within a few hours of walking the streets, I felt my footsteps lighten and a song on my lips. I think next time I return, I will look for that essence of Buenos Aires in dance - in particular the forms described by its Tango.
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