Caminito ("little walkway" or "little path" in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

) is a street museum and a traditional alley, located in

La Boca La Boca (; "the Mouth", probably of the Matanza River) is a neighborhood (''barrio'') of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It retains a strong Italian flavour, many of its early settlers having originated in the city of Genoa. Geography L ...

, a neighborhood of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The place acquired cultural significance because it inspired the music for the famous tango " Caminito" (1926), composed by

Juan de Dios Filiberto Juan de Dios Filiberto (8 March 1885 11 November 1964) was an Argentine violinist, conductor, poet and composer who became prominent in the Argentine tango genre. Life and work He was born Óscar Juan de Dios Filiberti in 1885 to Josefa Roballo ...

History

Buenos Aires - La Boca - Caminito - 200807i

During the 1800s, a small stream flowing into the

Riachuelo River The River The Matanza River is known by several names, including, in Spanish, Río de la Matanza ("the slaughter river" in English), Río Matanza ("slaughter river"), Río Mataderos ("slaughterhouses river"), Río de la Manzana ("the apple rive ...

ran along the same route where the Caminito is now. Later that century, this area of the stream became known as the ''Puntin'', the Genoese diminutive term for bridge (a small bridge allowed people to cross the stream there). When the stream dried up, tracks for the Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Puerto de la Ensenada were installed at the site. Disused tracks remain at the end of Caminito, along Garibaldi Street. In 1954, the railroad closed, and the area where Caminito was became a landfill and the neighborhood's eyesore. Over the following three years, Argentine artist

Benito Quinquela Martín Benito Quinquela Martín (March 1, 1890 – January 28, 1977) was an Argentine painter. Quinquela Martín is considered the port painter-par-excellence and one of the most popular Argentine painters. His paintings of port scenes show the activ ...

who lived nearby, painstakingly prepared the walls facing the abandoned street, applying pastel colors, and by 1960 had a stage put up at the southern end; the wooden-plank stage was replaced with a nearby theatre house in 1972. The artist was a personal friend of Argentine tango composer

, who created a well-known 1926 tune by the same name. File:Caminito-1939.jpg, The ''Caminito'' in its days as a railway lot, 1939 File:Caminito 1960.png, The ''Caminito'' in 1960, newly restored File:Caminito Buenos Aires Argentina.jpg, The lyric ''Caminito'', immortalized in song by

File:Caminito Farolito.jpg, Pastel hues in ''Caminito'' File:Caminito Havanna Buenos Aires.jpg, Sign at the Havanna store in ''Caminito''

External links

Caminito Street in La Boca neighbourhood
{{coord, 34.6393, S, 58.3628, W, format=dms, source:kolossus-ptwiki, display=title Streets in Buenos Aires Pedestrian streets in Argentina