Five years have passed since the last of the great transformations of
Corrientes Avenue.
Because in addition to being
"the street that never sleeps",
it is an emblem of the City and a survivor of everything that happens in the country;
its comings and goings, good and bad, the changes in customs and trends, which led it to be the street of bohemia and culture between the 60s and 80s, to its current image, in which little remains
of those years .
In April 2019, the avenue inaugurated its
pedestrianization
and since that moment, every night, neighbors, and national and foreign tourists, come and go, forming a human tide that takes full advantage of the multiple offers that Corrientes offers: bars, cafes , restaurants, ice cream parlors, theaters, bookstores and
fichines
.
From Callao to Libertad, the pedestrian street lights up when the sun goes down.
It was always like this?
The theater entrepreneur Carlos Rottemberg has been living on the avenue for more than 40 years and has incredible memories of
what it looked like in the 80s.
"The magazine theaters had a peculiarity: late-night performances. And a lot of audiences came from the Bajo, it was a tide of people going up Corrientes.
Luna Park still offered boxing evenings
and in those years the formula was: boxing, pizza, magazine. That's why it was very picturesque to see the human horde arriving at the theaters."
Now there are no performances until this late.
The lights go out earlier, when the theater shows end and the restaurants empty.
And as in other streets of the City, the crisis is also seen on the sidewalks of the avenue, where there are people sleeping.
There are practically no fights in Luna Park, but the theaters and gastronomic activity continue.
With enormous changes, of course.
Perhaps the milestone of these changes was
the closing of La Paz,
on the corner of Corrientes and Montevideo, famous for the number of artists and intellectuals it attracted - a meeting point for bohemia in those years - and because
Fito Páez composed "11 and 6"
(Giros, 1985), with this bar as a setting immortalized in verses such as "for a month, they sold roses in La Paz."
Today there are two gastronomic spaces in one: the Tienda de Café bar and the Fabric Sushi restaurant.
And nothing remains of the aesthetics of that mythical bar.
Gabriel Famá is in charge of one of the most famous establishments on the avenue: the Cadore ice cream parlor.
To try what many consider the best dulce de leche in the City, you have to wait
more than half an hour in line.
The Cadore ice cream parlor.
To try their ice creams you have to wait more than half a block in line.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
One of the reasons that explains the fame of this flavor is its manufacturing method: they take the trouble to make dulce de leche at home, reducing it over low heat for 14 hours.
The ice cream parlor occupies a small space, almost on the corner with Rodriguez Peña.
There is no cold room, so everything that is produced that day is sold.
It has been operating there since 1957
and Gabriel began working with his family in the 70s, during the summers.
"I remember
Corrientes in the 70s and 80s as an avenue that concentrated everything
. If you wanted to go out you had to come here. The pizza, the cinemas, theaters, and the coffee. In the neighborhoods it was totally exceptional to find all these options," Remember Fama.
The corner of La Paz, today occupied by Fabric and Tienda de Café.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
"On the one hand, I saw it as an extraordinarily cultural place. And not only because of the bookstores, but because
in the bars you could find poets, musicians, sculptors, rockers; especially at night
. And on the other hand, in the morning , already had a very important movement of workers who stopped
by for breakfast
, a tradition that was lost," he says.
Perhaps this topic makes a big difference with today.
That ritual of having breakfast, having a coffee, eating a couple of croissants and reading the paper newspapers was modified.
On the one hand, because the crisis impacts this type of consumption - a latte with two croissants can cost between $3,000 and $3,500 - and because some bars only start to open at 9. This is not the case of La Giralda or La Pasta Frola, two classics on the avenue, which although changed and renovated, serve
breakfast from very early
.
Bars like La Opera, a Corrientes tradition.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
There are also others that no longer exist, that left their names in history, such as Los Pinos, El Foro, Ondine, Costa Azul and Ramos, among others.
But without a doubt, as said, the most recognized of all was La Paz.
It closed on March 20, 2020, with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, and did not reopen its doors.
Rottemberg - who began his career at the Tabarís Theater (today Multitabaris Comafi, on the "other side" of the Obelisk) - understands that "the most important change was that in those years
the revue theater was very strong
. And it competed in four rooms, at the Astros, the Maipo, Lola Membrives, and the Tabarís. They attracted a huge audience. And another peculiarity of those years is that the most frivolous and popular shows could coexist with others starring representatives of the
dramatic genres
. programming was broader. For example, Alfredo Alcón not only acted in public theaters, but also in commercial ones," he recalls.
The Metropolitan, one of the theaters on the avenue.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
And he tells an anecdote from those times: in 1981, the El Picadero theater suffered an attack with a fire bomb that destroyed it.
A week before the attack, a group of playwrights, directors and actors had started the Open Theater cycle, a movement of cultural opposition to the civil-military dictatorship.
The Tabarís offered its room, and in the same theater you could see two works that could be considered "antagonistic": magazine and Open Theater.
Arturo Puig spoke with
Clarín
and contributed his vision about those and these times: "To have dimension, I always tell my young colleagues how people worked in the 80s. With the play Sugar (together with Susana Giménez and Ricardo Darín), we made
two performances per day, from Tuesday to Sunday, to a packed house"
.
Eternal avenue.
Corrientes, with the Obelisk in the background.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
Today the fundamental change is observed in what the billboard offers: "Most theaters have comedies and musicals. There is a generalized thought that in difficult moments people want to laugh. It's not bad, it sounds logical. But the interesting thing about Corrientes and their offer is that there is also space for works like ours," analyzes Puig.
Along with Selva Alemán, he stars in "Long Journey of a Day into the Night", by Eugene O'Neill, at the Teatro San Martín.
Like the comedies, the San Martín play is also a success.
The last performance will be on March 31 and then they have offers to take it to Mar del Plata and Santa Fe.
Theaters.
Comedies and musicals lead the billboard.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
The present
After a "historic" 2023, with record sales of theater tickets and queues in businesses such as pizzerias and ice cream parlors, the avenue is preparing to fight again.
"I had to learn the Uruguayan anniversaries, because the amount of tourism we received in the theaters was notable. First Uruguayans, then Chileans, a little less from Paraguay and Bolivia, also from Mexico and Peru. Except for Brazil, because of the language, the presence of foreigners was notable," Rottemberg highlighted to the flood of foreigners after the pandemic and with the dollar "cheap" for them.
Pizzeria Guerrin, one of the most traditional in Corrientes.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
Güerrín, La Americana and Banchero are some of the classic pizzerias that have been on the avenue for decades and are still going strong.
Also The Immortals.
The same case is that of Gato Negro, the spice bar opened more than 90 years ago and which became a notable bar.
Or the bar and pizzeria
La Opera, an icon on the corner of Callao.
But 2024 looks different.
And the
theaters continue to be the thermometer of what will happen to the life of the avenue
.
The first two months of the year already started with a 30% decrease in ticket sales, audited by AADET, the chamber that brings together music and theater businessmen.
"Of course
this decline has an impact on the commercial activity of the avenue,
which suffers the impact, from the restaurants to the parking lots. Specifically, the 23rd set the bar very high against a 24th that some of us believe is already quite played; it will be a year of lower consumption for the activity," stated Rottemberg.
S.C.
Corrientes, symbol of the City, is also a space of contrasts.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
The Obelisk, brand of Corrientes.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
The bookstores are another particular feature of the avenue.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
Corrientes, the most emblematic avenue in Buenos Aires.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
El Gato Negro, one of the historic places.
Banchero, another classic pizzeria.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
Comedies rule the Multitheater.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
A customer at the traditional La pasta frola bakery.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
The avenue, from Corrientes towards Bajo.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu