La Boca: The Neighborhood That Gave Birth to Boca Juniors
Although many stadiums in recent years are being outside of urban centers, many clubs continue to have home grounds based in the neighborhoods where they were originally founded. The connection between club and neighborhood is often strong, and nowhere more so than in the Buenos Aires neighborhood that is home to Boca Juniors.
La Boca is literally and figuratively an extremely colorful neighborhood. Much of its character comes from the brightly painted buildings, especially those along the famous Caminito street. The bright colors of these buildings hide their shoddy construction. Quantity of housing was more important than quality, as these sheet metal structures were built to house the masses of Italian immigrants who came to populate La Boca in the 19th century.
The local color (literally) of La Boca
These Italian immigrants came largely from the city of Genoa and La Boca took on a Genoese identity. The name La Boca was in fact a shortening of the Bocadaze neighborhood in Genoa from which many of the immigrants came. When La Boca briefly seceded from Argentina in 1882, the residents raised the flag of Genoa (which, ironically, is identical to England’s St. George’s Cross).
Flag of Genoa / La Boca / England
La Boca has long been is seen as the cultural center of Buenos Aires. Many tourists visit La Boca to see tango performances (the dance was invented in this neighborhood) as well as the many artists who call it home.
A street performance of tango in La Boca
Not all is pretty in La Boca, however. It has long been host to the city’s meatpacking industry and the putrid smell that long characterized it came from industrial waste dumped into the Riachuelo River.
The polluted Riachuelo River, part of La Boca’s “charm”
Though it has been cleaned up recently, La Boca remains a largely working-class identity. As Lonely Planet puts it, “La Boca can be very rough in spots, so it’s best not to stray from the riverside walk or the tourist sections” (130).
The La Boca locals whom Lonely Planet advises its readers to keep away from are almost undoubtedly Boca Juniors fans. The club was founded in 1905 by five Italian immigrants in La Boca and has remained there ever since (further evidence of the Genoese influence: Boca Juniors fans are often referred to as xeneizes, which means Genoese in the Italian dialect of that city). Just as the neighborhood has historically been and remains to this day largely working-class, the Boca Juniors’ support is seen as coming from modest means (fans of their wealthier rivals, River Plate refer to Boca fans as bosteros, or manure handlers).
One of the most iconic symbols of Boca Juniors is its stadium, La Bombonera. Located in the middle of La Boca, the area that surrounds the stadium is colorful, but with a strong emphasis on blue and yellow, Boca Juniors’ colors. Many buildings surrounding the stadium are painted in homage to the local team.
A building that leaves no doubts about the allegencies of its inhabitants
La Bombonera is one of the most impressive stadiums in the world. Its name (bombonera means chocolate box) comes from its rectangular shape, though its most distinctive feature may be the nearly vertical stand that houses luxury boxes (Diego Maradona often shows up here and his passion nearly leads to him falling over the edge of his luxury box to an inglorious end). The atmosphere in the stadium is raucous to say the least, and Boca’s fans (La Doce or the 12th man) are known around the world for their passion.
There are few teams with as strong a connection to their local neighborhood as that between Boca Juniors and La Boca. As many clubs move, literally and figuratively, from their local communities, it is worth celebrating those that have not done so. Over a century after being founded there, Boca Juniors remains tied to the colorful neighborhood of La Boca.
