Buenos Aires is full of foreign writers these days. Today I came across an interview with Peter Robertson who lives half the year in Buenos Aires and half in London. Robertson’s translation of Del Latin Recordis, by poet Argentine Maria Teresa Andruetto will appear in an upcoming issue of The Literary Review.

About translating, Robertson says

Over the last year or so, I have devoted much of my time to publishing translations of French and Spanish authors, including Ronsard, Paul Éluard and Rubén Darío, and later this year I will start translating the first of many books. I certainly don´t agree with Cervantes who said that “translation is the other side of the tapestry”; in fact, I am convinced that the best translations are transformative and can even be improvements on the original texts.

Every time I look around there seems to be more and more art galleries in San Telmo, which simply adds to the overall number of art galleries in Buenos Aires. The other day I went into an art gallery on Defensa that is worth visiting: galería de arte mercedes giachetti. It’s at Defensa 718 and is located in a very nice older building.

It’s a nice art gallery to visit and, if you go, be sure to take the staircase up to the first floor where the works by the art gallery owner Mercedes Giachetti are on display. Even if you don’t like contemporary art, visiting the upper floor of the art gallery is a nice chance to see inside one of the older buildings on Defensa.

Currently, there is a very good exhibition by Elvira Cosentino that runs till June 3, whose works I found rather appealing.

I also noticed on Sunday that Defensa is now closed as far south as Garay. There’s a bit more activity on Sundays now taking place on the block of Defensa between Cochabamba and Garay with several shops having opened recently and there’s even a tapas bar, plus one or two more restaurants. And, on the same block, is another cool gallery whose name, unfortunately I don’t remember. (I’ll have to go back and take note of it). Gee, in another year, Defensa probably will be closed all the way past Parque Lezama.

Oh, and I was mentioning art….if you’re interested in art in Argentina and Latin America then you certainly should be reading Arte al Dia.

Okay, here ends this public service announcement and free advertising …. but, hey, I know a lot of visitors to my blog are looking for that kind of thing … art galleries in San Telmo… so there you go.

On one of my walks last week up Av de Mayo I decided at Congreso to turn left onto Entre Rios rather than my usual pattern of taking Callao into Barrio Norte. Back in 2003 when I was visiting BsAs regularly from Miami I often found myself on Entre Rios since I always stayed in an apartment near the intersection of Estados Unidos and Virrey Cevallos. But it had been a long time since I walked down Entre Rios and I had forgotten that it’s a relatively nice street.

There are some very nice buildings…..

And, while it’s not Barrio Norte, there are some great apartments……

Of course, as you get further down Entre Rios the buildings are not in as good shape but still quite interesting. Actually, this one is quite odd.

And, below, those blue curtains on the 2nd floor are not so hot but that top floor apartment looks wonderful.

I actually couldn’t remember to which barrio this area belongs, so I had to look it up….and, drumbeat…well, actually Entre Rios is one of those boundary streets that (north of Independencia) serves as the border between Balvanera and Monserrat. Between Independencia and Garay, Entre Rios is the border between Constitución and San Cristobal.

I ended up walking back through Constitución to San Telmo. And I just have to say, having wandered around Constitución several times, that except for the two blocks surrounding the train station, Constitución is not as bad as its reputation. Obviously it’s not Recoleta but most of Constitución isn’t any different than most of the other barrios in Buenos Aires.