Searching for the authentic

El CaminitoI would definitely agree that what the traveler seeks is “authenticity”. Everyone here always wants to have a “real” Argentine experience or go out to a restaurant that the “locals” go to. I am not an exception to this desire and it is something that I’ve thought about a lot during my time here. However, I must clear something up: while I can’t speak for everyone, I do not feel that I am a traveler or tourist here in Buenos Aires. I live here. I have a home here. I have a daily life here. With that said, I think that my way of going about discovering the “back region” is different that a traveler or tourist.

For example, during our first week here, before I had a sense of Buenos Aires, we were taken on a tour around the city, where we checked out the famous neighborhood “La Boca”. There we visited El Caminito, a small, colorful, architecturally fascinating little street. The only problem was, it was a complete tourist trap. The street was lined with people selling trinkets, artwork, “real” tango dancers, etc… The only problem was, the only people there were tourists. Every single person who looked at us on that street did not see faces, but rather dollar signs. What’s worse is that La Boca is advertised as this quaint little working class, immigrant neighborhood when it actually has one of the higher crime rates and is one of the poorer neighborhoods within Capital Federal.

My reason for this anecdote is this: to the tourist or traveler, who’s just passing through Buenos Aires, he/she might visit La Boca’s Caminito and say how beautiful and wonderful it was, how it was so full of color and the people were so joyful, how it was a real “authentic” experience. This area is the exact type of place MacCannell was talking about, it’s “arranged to produce the impression that a back region has been entered even when this is not the case.”

As for me, I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason why I want to get into the back regions is simple: my desire to learn Argentine culture. Once again, I’m living here now, this is my home. I don’t just want to bring my same self and my same customs and habits from the states and live my same lifestyle here. Living and understanding a different lifestyle than my own is one of my main goals here, and I believe that one way of helping to achieve that goal is by discovering the back regions.