Banfield: Literature, Art and Memory

Banfield offers several ways to explore culture: one walking tour follows in the footsteps of Julio Cortázar through the streets, a museum is devoted to painting, and a place of remembrance focuses on the promotion and defense of human rights. There is also the history and legacy of Sandro. When planning a trip, you can focus on literature, visual art or remembrance culture, depending on your interests.

Discover literature on a walking tour

The Camino Cortázar leads on foot through the streets of Banfield and reveals traces of the writer Julio Cortázar in the neighborhood where he spent a large part of his life. The literary walking tour includes murals inspired by his works. Here, then, the place associated with Cortázar’s life meets artistic interpretations of his literature.

This focus sets the walking tour apart from a traditional museum visit: the streets and murals inspired by his works provide the setting, while Cortázar’s connection to Banfield provides the thematic thread. This makes it easy to choose when planning your trip: if you are particularly interested in literature and its traces in the neighborhood, you can make the Camino Cortázar the focus of your visit; if you would like to see individual works of art and a range of artistic forms, the Museo Pío Collivadino offers a different perspective.

Painting at the Museo Pío Collivadino

The Museo Pío Collivadino is a cultural space of the Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, located at Medrano 165 in Banfield. Its permanent exhibition is devoted to the work of Pío Collivadino. On display are oil paintings, etchings, sketches and studies. The different forms of work offer more than one way to explore Collivadino’s creative output: alongside finished paintings are graphic works as well as smaller designs and studies.

The museum offers free guided tours for schools, kindergartens, institutions and groups of all ages. Tours are tailored to the interests of each audience. For groups wishing to include a museum visit in their trip, this provides a practical consideration: the tour is not designed in the same way for every audience. The visit is therefore particularly well suited to a trip in which art and discovering things together play a part.

Remembrance and cultural legacy

The Espacio para la Memoria y la promoción de los DDHH Ex CCDTyE “Pozo de Banfield” offers a different historical and social focus. Provincial Decree 2.204/06, dated August 30, 2006, designated the site for the creation of a place of remembrance and for the promotion and defense of human rights. This designation makes remembrance and human rights the explicit central theme. If you would like to discover Banfield through more than literature and art, you can include this perspective as a distinct cultural experience.

Comunidad Sandro adds another walking tour: it leads through Banfield and focuses on Sandro’s history and legacy. Together with the Camino Cortázar, it offers a choice between two biographical themes. One tour focuses on traces of Cortázar and murals inspired by his works, the other on Sandro’s history and legacy. This lets you choose the cultural focus of your trip rather than giving equal weight to every theme.

Banfield as a base for your trip

The rail connection may also play a part in choosing where to stay. The General Roca line connects the Partido de Lomas de Zamora with the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires via Temperley on the Plaza Constitución–Ezeiza, A. Korn and Bosques branches. Stations along the route include Banfield, Lomas de Zamora, Turdera, Temperley and Llavallol.

The area’s cultural offerings have different focuses: literary traces in the streets, Collivadino’s art, remembrance culture and Sandro’s legacy. Consider which of these themes you would like to shape your trip and whether the rail connection matters to your plans. This will help you choose a holiday apartment in Banfield that suits the kind of stay you want, without reducing the area’s cultural character to a single theme.

For the broader travel overview: Lomas de Zamora Partido.