Caminito (little path) is a traditional alley located in the neighborhood La Boca of Buenos Aires. This colorful place is a street museum full of painted houses. It is little, less than 100 m long and not exactly an authentic place but a “representative” of how the barrio of La Boca looked like on the 19th century and until 1950.
Between the years 1880 to 1930 more than 6 million immigrants came into Argentina. Many immigrants were Italians and a lot of them were from the port town of Genoa. They started a new life at the port of La Boca and they bring with them their old traditions. One of their traditions was to paint the outside of their houses with the leftover paint from the shipyard.
By the late 1950s, La Boca had drastically changed as most of the colorful, houses had been pulled down and being replaced by blocks of flats.
Benito Quinquela Martin, an orphan who was adopted by a Genoese immigrant couple, had become the most significant painter in Argentina, with his paintings of the port of La Boca.In 1959, Quinquela Martin and his artist friends created the street of Caminito, as a recreation of the way old La Boca used to look.
Even if La Boca today is a “recreation” of what is used to be you can still take some amazing colorful pictures.
