Barracas
Barracas
Barracas, old borough of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, located close to the mouth of the Río de las Matanzas, also known as Riachuelo, flowing into the estuary of Río De La Plata. It was named thus for the numerous warehouses for hides and agricultural products located in this area in colonial and early republican times. With the arrival of Italian immigrants in the 1880s and their establishment in this sector of the city there emerged the borough of La Boca, which increased in importance when port facilities for domestic navigation were built on the Riachuelo, communicating with the estuary by means of the Southern Canal. Toward the end of the twentieth century Barracas lost significance as a warehouse and port district and has become mostly a residential area for lower-middle-class families.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Additional Bibliography
Alvarez de Celis, Fernando. El sur en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires: Caracterización económica territorial de los barrios de La Boca, Barracas, Nueva Pompeya, Villa Riachuelo Villa Soldati, Villa Lugano y Mataderos. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Económico Metropolitano, 2003.
Puccia, Enrique Horacio. Barracas, su historia y sus tradiciones, 1536–1936. Buenos Aires: Tall. Gráf. de la Compañía General Fabril Financiera, 1968.
CÉsar N. Caviedes