Third Spaces in Buenos Aires

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Last Sunday, my roommate and I took a day trip to a local vendor’s market in a quaint neighborhood right outside of Buenos Aires. We had a blast – thank you for asking – and we decided to finish the day with a delicious and well-deserved meal.

Being pinnacles of athleticism, we walked the five-mile distance to our restaurant, which would turn out to be a regrettable decision.

At the three-mile point, I was moaning and groaning in a classic “how far away are we?” kind of way, and Sophia agreed to stop at a bench for a moment. Little did I know that something up ahead would make every step worthwhile.

There was a park just across the street from where we were sitting, and it was absolutely and positively booming. The playground was flooded with kids swinging and running around, while their parents watched from benches and chatted amongst themselves. The park was fairly small, but was somehow busy enough that I wondered if there was a special event going on. Couples flooded the pathways while holding hands, and crowds of friend groups took photos in the sunlit grass. All to say, what really caught my eye in this unassuming park was the sheer amount of people.

That experience was so striking to me because it felt so different from the parks in Holland, and it also made me realize that this wasn’t the first time I had felt this particular way about third spaces in Argentina.

There’s no better way to explain it than this: third spaces here truly thrive. Argentines almost never take their coffee to go; they stay in shopping malls until the late hours of the night, and the amount of time one can spend at a milonga (tango gathering) is impressive, to say the least.

Here’s another example. I was in Rosario last weekend to watch a movie, and I’ve never been in such a packed theater. It was almost midnight, but the place was thriving more than Sperry’s Theater on the opening weekend of the Minecraft movie (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky you’re not as chronically online as I am.)

The point I’m trying to get at is that Buenos Aires does such a good job of creating community spaces where you can easily get to know people. I know that Holland has similar community spaces like parks and cafes, but people here truly inhabit these spaces in a way that fosters meaningful interactions. I’ve been to parks before, but here they are occupied in a way that I’ve never experienced.

From what I can tell, the difference is not just how much time they invest into these spaces, but also the activities they enjoy within the spaces. People drink from communal mate cups, they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek, and they’re happy to dance with complete strangers. All to say, from what I’ve observed, Argentines aren’t afraid to linger, and they aren’t afraid to take up space. How beautiful is that!

I’m not trying to say that Michigan doesn’t have spaces like this. I think being somewhere different just makes you realize how arbitrary some of our social norms can be. Buenos Aires is also a bigger city, which definitely contributes to how its third spaces are occupied. Nevertheless, maybe lingering over a coffee for a few hours isn’t so strange, and maybe we could all benefit from taking up a little more space and time to simply enjoy being together.

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