He April, the 21st In 1822, the first municipal mayor of the City of Buenos Aires was born in Montevideo, Mr. Torcuato of Alvearresponsible for one deep urban transformation which included the opening of Avenida de Mayo and the demolition of the Recova Vieja, which divided the current Plaza de Mayo.
Don Torcuato de Alvear was a character of enormous political importance during the last decades of the 19th century. As a member of the Alvear family, he was part of the traditional Buenos Aires aristocracy and the so-called Generation of the Eighties. In 1883, appointed by President Julio Argentino Roca, he became the first municipal mayor of the City of Buenos Aires.
In this frame, Buenos Aires began to emerge as the sparkling stained glass window of the countryas a mirror in which society looked to check the leaps of its progress. And it was Torcuato de Alvear who best personified the profound urban transformation aimed at rearranging the city in its new role in the national and international sphere.
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The Pink House: three in one
With the help of his secretary of public works, Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, he undertook important urban reform operations that called for generating a new image of the citydistant from its colonial legacy and emulating all the glamour parisino. His intention was to make Buenos Aires “the Paris of South America”, elegant and sumptuous, refined and exquisite.
Firstly, he raised the revaluation of the central area with expansion and beautification works. Thus, he carried out the demolition of the Recova Vieja, a typically colonial arcaded gallery, which divided the current Plaza de Mayo in two and which housed local businesses that offered meat, fruits and vegetables, as well as crafts, clothing and fast food. .
Without recova, it was possible unify the Plaza de Mayo e begin the opening of Avenida de Mayoa central boulevard 30 meters wide and 13 blocks long that crosses the blocks comprised of Rivadavia and Hipólito Yrigoyen streets, spatially linking the headquarters of the Executive Branch – the Casa Rosada – with that of the Legislative Branch – the National Congress -.
Yellow fever accelerated the inauguration of the Chacarita Cemetery
Parallel to this euphoria, the large waves of immigration multiplied the density of a city that raised specific habitat problems to be resolved, where numerous epidemics of infectious-contagious diseases accentuated health deficiencies and put the state of services in crisis, collapsing urban health and infrastructure systems.
This caused it to be periodically shaken by major epidemics of cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, tuberculosis, etc., which occurred with increasing intensity. For this reason the public parks began to be considered as lungs of the city against growing congestion and as “civilizing” instruments of society.
This dichotomy revealed the established crisis and, for this, Torcuato de Alvear had to act to arbitrate between the common good and the private interest of individuals, who were predominantly local property owners who fulfilled their important fiscal commitments. So he also undertook important administrative management of the city.
Celebrating Villa Luro
The change in the appearance of the city was significant.. Vacant lands were populated and those that were intended for orchards were subdivided, public parks were expanded and created, numerous boulevards were opened to contain sumptuous buildings and public lighting began to be electrified, which would replace the old kerosene and gas streetlights.
While the northern neighborhoods were filled with French mansions, the shingles on was trying to accommodate hygienic and sanitary requirements. The development of old neighborhoods and the emergence of new ones was encouraged by the new dynamics of transportation, which gained distances and reduced times, with suburbs that were filled with new neighborhoods.
Carlos Thays “buried” rosismo, covering the country in green and germinating yerba mate
Finally, during his mandate, the city proposed for the first time need to conceive a comprehensive plan of improvements and transformations to be carried out, in the image and likeness of the European beautification and extension plans. In those initial approaches, a new network of large arteries began to take shape that would cut diagonally through the city.
One observes, then, the coexistence of two opposing realities: on the one hand, the desire for a modern citycapable of seducing the world with a charmingly Europeanized physiognomy and, on the other, the commitment to address a population overflow to provide residencehospitals and schools, as well as streets, squares, lighting, running water and sewers.