There are many fun things to do in Buenos Aires and, on this Valentine’s Day, here are some ways of falling in love with the city of Buenos Aires:

1. Enjoy the afternoon on a shady bench in Plaza San Martín, with a backdrop of aristocratic palaces and the periodic appearance of historically dressed militars marching towards the Malvinas memorial.
2. Hunting down the distinctive garages, those characteristic structures from the city’s golden age that remarkably stylize the concept of the parking lot.
3. Spend hours in a classic café talking with a friend, reading, or just observing porteño society.
4. Linger along the streets, admiring architectural details, like decorative tiles and stunning doorways, designed and crafted by architects and contractors who proudly left their names on the facades.
5. Venture away from the busy avenues and stroll down cobblestone streets in a quiet barrio, where you might even unexpectedly stumble onto a film set.
6. Witness the seductive dance of tango in a milonga, or join in if your feet allow.
7. Seek out an antique pocket watch in a charming store on a hidden block in the city’s core.
8. Discover Argentina’s many great painters- Berni, Quinquela Martín, Xul Solar - and wonder why you’ve never heard their names before coming to know Buenos Aires.
9. Wander down a side street between Puerto Madero and downtown and be astonished at the sight of an eternal flame below a painting of the mythical figure of Eva Perón that adorns one corner building.
10. Walk the streets of Buenos Aires, just choose a street and walk….walk slow.

If you want to fall in love with Buenos Aires, or already are in a passionate affair with this city, I will be releasing a series of e-books that I’m labeling the Walking Buenos Aires series. Each e-book also will be available in a print format for those of you who prefer your books on paper. The first volume will be out soon. Stay updated on this series by heading over to walkingbuenosaires.com and leaving your email address.

Recoleta Cemetery is one of those places where you always learn something new and Robert’s AfterLife site gives a fresh dose of those creepy yet beautiful tombs. You really should be following that site if you’re not already.

Back in 2006 I wrote a post titled terrorist, assasin, avenger. As blogging goes, I’ve actually forgotten about that post even though the anarchist movement in Buenos Aires is one of my favorite topics of reading. The other day Robert asked if he could use part of that post to highlight the tombs of the victims, Ramón Falcón & Juan Alberto Lartigau, located in a spectacular corner of Recoleta Cemetery.

Ituzaingo is a quiet, shady street just beyond the southern edge of San Telmo. Nothing suggest this street as the source for a social movement in 1907 that mobilized 10% of the population of Buenos Aires.

The strike started in September 1907 in one building where the rent increased by 47% in a single month. The strike then surged through San Telmo, including more than 750 buildings within a month. Working class tenants throughout the city joined the strike and more than 2,000 buildings - representing more than 120,000 people - had joined the movement by the end of 1907.

Wages keeping track with inflation is always a problem in a growing economy, a topic familiar to anyone living in Buenos Aires today. By 1907 rents had been rising steadily for two years, yet wages were not increasing for many workers.

A side note to this story: the two hundred block of Ituzaingo where the strike started no longer exits. Ituzaingo street now starts at the 500 block, the earlier parts of it were cut off by Parque Lezama and construction in La Boca.

There are a number of fascinating studies about working class activism during this period of Buenos Aires history. A particularly detailed article is by James Baer, “Tenant Mobilizatin and the 1907 Rent Strike in Buenos Aires”, The Americas, Vol 49, Issue 3, January 1993, pp 343-368.

The development of organized labor in Argentina, based on an immigrant workforce that brought both socialist and anarchist tendencies from Europe, is one of the primary forces that shaped the country during the 20th century. Much of the middle class in Buenos Aires today sigh in frustration over the antics of the labor unions and worker movements. But the historical origins of that populism is largely responsible for the eventual formation of the modern middle class in Argentina, a reminder that forces today are shaping the Argentina of tomorrow.