Avenida Corrientes


Avenida Corrientes is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. The street is intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity. Like the parallel avenues Santa Fe, Córdoba, and San Juan, it takes its name from one of the Provinces of Argentina.
It extends 69 blocks from Eduardo Madero Avenue in the eastern Puerto Madero neighborhood to the West and later to the Northwest, and ends at Federico Lacroze Avenue in the Chacarita neighborhood. Automobile traffic runs from west to east. Line B of the Buenos Aires Metro runs most of its length underneath the street.
The Asociación Amigos de la Calle Corrientes is a group that collaborates on the urban planning of the street. They have placed commemorative plaques on 40 street corners bearing the distinguished figures from the history of the tango.

History

It was named Del Sol during the 17th century, San Nicolás from 1738 to 1808, and De Incháurregui from 1808 until 1822, when it received its current name. Never more than a street of average width during the nineteenth century, traffic swelled after the city began its rapid westward expansion, around 1880. Horse-drawn tramways first ran on the avenue in 1887; but, they soon proved inadequate and in 1910, Mayor Joaquín de Anchorena signed a bill authorizing its widening.
The plan called for the massive razing of most of the avenue's north-side real estate and, so, met with strenuous opposition from affected landlords, retailers, as well as intellectuals like Roberto Arlt. A coup d'ètat in 1930, however, made way for the plan's implementation, carried out relentlessly until its completion, in 1936. Today, when referring to Corrientes prior to the widening, the term "Narrow Corrientes" is used. The newly inaugurated avenue coincided with the construction of the Buenos Aires Obelisk, since then one of the city's most recognizable landmarks, visible for several blocks of the avenue´s downtown stretch. The opening of the Obelisk and surrounding Plaza de la República in 1936 created a roundabout at the 9th of July Avenue intersection. Corrientes, like most major city avenues, was made a one-way thoroughfare by a 1967 municipal ordinance. Growing traffic demands led to the opening of the avenue through the plaza, and around the Obelisk, in 1971.The name "Corrientes Street" is often still preferred over "Corrientes Avenue" specially on the famous centrical stretch. With that name it appears famously in several tango lyrics.
The first few blocks encompass Buenos Aires financial district forming its Northern boundary, and are bustling with activity during banking hours – traversed after several blocks by pedestrian Florida Street. Further down, for some blocks from 9 de Julio Avenue to Uruguay St. the avenue forms the Southern border of the :es:Tribunales |lawyers' district surrounding the nearby Plaza Lavalle and the :es:Palacio de Justicia de la Nación |Supreme Court.
For most of the 20th century Calle Corrientes was a symbol of night life in Buenos Aires, traditionally nicknamed "the street that never sleeps", In the 10 blocks West of downtown from Maipu St to Callao Avenue it held the largest concentration of theatres and cinemas, making it the center of commercial theatre in the city.. The corridor includes some outstanding examples of Art Deco cinema architecture of the '30s and '40s such as Teatro Gran Rex, Teatro Opera and :es:Teatro_Premier|Teatro Premier. With the largest concentration of bookshops Corrientes was during the day a favourite haunt for intellectuals during the '50s, '60s and '70s while its famous pizza parlours and restaurants attracted city crowds on Fridays or Saturdays evenings – a night out of "pizza and cinema" on Corrientes and neighbouring Calle Lavalle being the standard form of urban weekend entertainment for generations of porteños. The Revista porteña or Teatro de revistas with its glittering vedettes and racy capo-cómicos is still centered around this stretch of Corrientes – the lure of red carpet opening nights where celebrities can be glimpsed adding to the folklore. At the farther end – the Luna Park is still synonymous with mass sports and entertainment events such as box matches or concerts.
Throughout the decades the street has seen its own fauna of urban stereotypes, from the "innocent barrio girl" corrupted by the "bright city lights" of many a tango lyric in the cabarets and nightclubs of the 1920s and '30s to the valijero lone salesmen or office workers on lunch breaks, who sneaked to watch X-rated European movies when they appeared in the '60s and '70s to the "psico-bolche" – artsy students and intellectuals who peopled its bookstores and cafes after the return of democracy in the early '80s.
The emergence of video, the Internet, cineplex and shopping malls reduced much of the allure of Corrientes, and saw the closing of several famous cinemas and theatres. Yet sidewalks were widened and beautified in 2005 to facilitate retail activity along the avenue, which had declined since the 1970s. and today Corrientes is once again thriving at night - specially among theatre goers, with several major playhouse renovations and additions. Since the '80s the trend towards world-famous Broadway musicals in Spanish coexists with the more traditional or avant-garde serious theatre and the popular Teatro de Revistas. The last blocks of this main stretch, between Avenida Callao and Uruguay Street are converted into an expansive outdoor reading room during Bookstore Night, an annual event inaugurated in 2007.
Mayor Mauricio Macri announced in 2010 that the financial district section of Corrientes - between Ninth of July and Avenida Leandro N. Alem, would become a two-way avenue.

Points of interest

Base to obelisk

"Off-Corrientes" refers to the alternative playhouse scene, much of it literally concentrated on surrounding streets – although also widely distributed elsewhere in city neighbourhoods. The Ricardo Rojas Center of the University of Buenos Aires, which promotes experimental art, and like-minded venues such as Gandhi and although catering to "off-Corrientes" crowds, are themselves located on Corrientes.

''Once''

Further down, Corrientes traverses the Balvanera borough the traditionally Jewish neighborhood known for its many synagogues and the wholesale and retail sale of clothing.

Abasto

Beyond Pueyrredón Avenue is the neighbourhood of :es:Abasto |Abasto, named thus for holding the once cavernous Art Deco Mercado de Abasto, the city's former central fruit and vegetable market and for being the home of Carlos Gardel, Argentina most famous tango singer – popularly known as "el morocho del Abasto". In disrepair not many years ago, the neighborhood is slowly making a comeback, after local developer IRSA turned the imposing old market into what is today, the city's largest shopping center.

Almagro

Further down Corrientes is Almagro, a calm residential neighborhood inhabited by apartment-dwellers, with the centre of activity at the intersection of Medrano and Rivadavia Avenues.

Villa Crespo

is another traditionally Jewish neighborhood traversed by Corrientes Avenue. Unleavened bread is available for passover, as are other seasonal specialties. It is in this area that the greater part of the 1948 Leopoldo Marechal novel, Adán Buenosayres, takes place; Marechal also wrote Historia de la Calle Corrientes in 1937. The neighborhood is home to the Atlanta football club.
The barrio was home to tango great Osvaldo Pugliese.

Chacarita

Corrientes ends at the Estación Federico Lacroze train station next to Parque Los Andes, where fairs where held until September 2005. Just west of the park is La Chacarita Cemetery; the largest in Argentina. The cemetery is at times referred to colloquially and in tango lyrics as La Quinta del Ñato.

Corrientes in tango music

Corrientes Avenue is featured in several tango lyrics, notably: