The feat of navigating the streets of Buenos Aires is not overly taxing. The city’s very regular grid system – although vast – proves utterly manageable, once armed with a trusty ‘Guia-T’ and some sense of where you are and where you are headed. Rather, the enigma of BA’s plethora of 2,159 calles, avenidas, pasajes and autopistas surrounds their names, origins, stories and peculiarities.
Many names are explicable and their stories very well known. The streets of Buenos Aires typically take their names from important historical events and significant political or literary figures. There are, however, a number of obscurities and oddities: Streets whose names do not allude to what most assume, or whose namesakes feature in the lesser-read parts of history books, for reasons which tend to slip under the radar.
The trivia is endless. And if this lowdown of Buenos Aires’ streets never proves useful per se, those with fervour for finer facts or mindful of miscellaneous matter will surely appreciate these additions to their dossiers of discretionary details. Or at least they can hope that one day the subject comes up in a pub quiz.
Spellings, Shapes and Sizes
To begin quite simply, the Buenos Aires streets with the shortest names are Ohm and Mom, with two different streets bearing the latter. Meanwhile, at 28 letters each, the longest names belong to María Antonia de la Paz y Figueroa and Severo García Grande de Zequeira.
Ordered alphabetically, Acassuso tops the list, with Zuviría at the bottom.
A bar and chori pan stand sit on the corner of Avenida Patricias Argentinas, one of just two circular streets in the city of Buenos Aires.
The straight-laced, straight-talking, ‘straight-streeted’ Argentine capital is home to just two circulars: Berlín, in Parque Chas; and Patricias Argentinas, which borders Parque Centenario.
Roads which run parallel to one another will never touch: A principle to which Ecuador and Anchorena choose not to adhere. They run parallel to Avenida Pueyrredón at their Rivadavia origin. However, Ecuador comes to an end when it hits Anchorena, which meets the same fate two blocks on, running into Pueyrredón. Thus, the laws of geometry are shattered.
The Diagonales Norte and Sur, built in the 1920s, exhibit a very curious and unique characteristic when compared architecturally with the rest of BA’s streets. Every building on each of them stands at exactly the same height (33m), with a cornice extending 28.66m. The windows and balconies of every building on these two streets are entirely uniform.
The city’s shortest street is Emilio Pettoruti, in Recoleta, which connects the Avenidas Del Libertador and Figueroa Alcorta. The narrowest street is Santa Magdalena, in Barracas.
The largest avenue in the world the Avenida 9 de Julio has width of 140m.
The longest and widest avenues are topics of dispute. Contrary to popular belief, Avenida Rivadavia is not BA’s longest street; and thus, claims that it is the world’s longest are also a myth. In fact, at 18.5km, Avenida Rivadavia is substantially surpassed by General Paz, which is just over 24km long. The world’s-widest-avenue-debate rages on. At 140m across, many argue that 9 de Julio is beaten by the 250m of Brasilia’s Eixo Monumental. However, as this road technically consists of two avenues, its accolade is actually that of ‘widest divided highway in the world’, allowing 9 de Julio to retain its glory.
Initial Misconceptions
Due to sheer lack of space on the signs, many of the roads of Buenos Aires find their namesakes abbreviated. But have you ever wondered what these initials stand for?
It is a common misconception amongst porteños that the ‘P’ in Francisco P. Moreno stands for perito (meaning ‘technical specialist’, in which capacity he disproved Chilean claims to the continental divide in 1902). In reality it corresponds to his middle name, Pascasio.
Despite rumours, the ‘N’ of Leandro N. Alem does not stand for Nicéforo. Rather, the radical politician signed personal cards with ‘Ln. Alem’ – an abbreviation of Leandro. Inexplicably, someone, somewhere, somehow decided that his middle name was Nicéforo; although it was actually Alén.
The ‘T’ of Marcelo T. de Alvear stands for Torcuato; the ‘B’ of Juan B. Justo, for Bautista; and the ‘N’ of Lucio N. Mansilla, for Norberto.
Names which are Poised to Puzzle
Many of Buenos Aires’ streets seem to have been named solely to confuse, whether they share a name with a far-away barrio or are one of 11 identically tagged avenues.
The historic café Esquina Homero Manzi on the corner of San Juan and Boedo represents some of the historic tango culture of the Boedo barrio.
Only two avenues can be found in barrios of the same name as their own: Boedo and Constitución. Defying all logic, the street, Almagro, is located in Villa Crespo; Caballito, in Parque Chacabuco; and Saavedra, in Balvanera. There are streets called Belgrano in Almagro, Balvanera and Montserrat; and Liniers, in Boedo and Almagro.
There is no arroyo (stream) running along Calle Arroyo, which instead takes its name from the Argentine worker, trader and military man, Manuel Andrés Arroyo y Pineda. Similarly, before bearing its current name, Avenida Leandro N. Alem was called Paseo de la Alameda (passage of poplar trees). Although the street was lined with trees, not a single one was a poplar.
Just to confuse things further, eleven BA streets include the surname, García. López and Martínez have nine each; and Álvarez and Rodríguez, eight.
Keeping it Familiar
The streets of the capital are often connected by more than just junctions and crossroads:
Domingo F. Sarmiento is not only the namesake of three separate streets in Buenos Aires, but his mother, Paula Albarracín de Sarmiento, is also commemorated with a street of her own.
Avoiding relationship power-struggles, both members of each of the following couples have been immortalised in street names: Marcelo T. de Alvear and Regina Pacini; José de San Martín and Remedios de Escalada; Juan B. Justo and Alicia Moreau; and Juan D. Perón and María Eva Duarte.
Both Valentín Alsina and his son, Adolfo, have streets named after them; as is the case with Carlos Alvear, his son, Emilio, and grandson, Marcelo. Writer, Juana Manuela Gorriti, followed in the footsteps of her father, José Ignacio, when her name was also given to a street; and you can find roads bearing the names of Juan Martín Pueyrredón, his son, Prilidiano, and grandson, Honorio.
Argentina’s presidents have left their mark in Buenos Aires, featuring on road signs throughout the city. In some cases, this presence extends to their family members. There are streets named after Bartolomé Mitre, his brother, Emilio, and son, Bartolomé Mitre y Vedia; the first head of state, Luis Sáenz Peña and his son, Roque; the Pellegrinis: Carlos and his father, Carlos Enrique; Hipólito Yrigoyen and his uncle, Leandro Alem; Bernardino Rivadavia and his grandson, Martín; and the Rocas: Julio Argentino and his father, José.
Diminutive Details
And for the miscellaneous trivia…
Avenida Ingeniero Huergo is the continuation of Avenida Eduardo Madero. Both these figures were engineers and rivals, competing for the task of remodelling Buenos Aires’ port. Madero emerged victorious. However, Luis Huergo later had his revenge, when he designed and built the Puerto Nuevo. Today, the rivalry lives on, as the limits of Puerto Madero are defined by Avenida Huergo.
Old cobblestones streets are a trademark of the street Defensa in the San Telmo barrio.
Every street of Puerto Madero bears a woman’s name, including politicians, intellectuals, artists and one of the founders of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Azucena Villaflor.
Not a single street in BA is called Brasilia – the Brazilian capital; despite the existence of calles Bahía and Río de Janeiro.
For a city which prides itself on its love of the beautiful game, the only street in Buenos Aires to be named after a footballer is Herminio Masantonio in Nueva Pompeya. The street is a few blocks from his old club, Hurucán.
There are, however, two streets which pay tribute to Argentine boxing legends: Justo Suárez and Oscar Bonavena.
Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, was the porteño mayor who decided to open Avenida 9 de Julio. He came to be known as Guillermo (William) Tell, due to the number of apple trees he pulled down.
Finally, reflecting the fast-paced, monotony-rejecting spirit of the city, throughout their history the streets of Buenos Aires have undergone a number of name changes. The most frequent culprit is Defensa, which has been called Real, Del Fuerte, San Francisco, Mayor, San Martín, Liniers and De la Reconquista.
