On the edge of Gaucho land.
San Antonio de Areco is, along with Mercedes, one of the main settlement places of Irish immigrants in Arentina. The community is still well alive, and so is the spirit. This could have been an alternative story of Irish emigration, but from what I was gathered from Seamus Whelan (see below) it is similar to other places of Irish immigration, in the sense that the community has about the same sense of itself as say in North America. For instance, land, work and education seem to be valued the same way.
The famous bridge at San Antonio de Areco....
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...and a river runs through it (the rio Areco)... A little park that looks ideal to bring the missus to for a little chat...
The main church in San Antonio: St Anthony of Padua. I wonder if its the church that gave its name to the town or vice-versa.
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Father Seamus "Santiago" Whelan, a Pallottine father, originally from Ballin in Co Cavan, gave us a warm welcome. If you go to see him, do bring him some Barry's tea!
Seamus and a friend of his, Lily Sills (who has a cousin of the same name, director of the Dublin Arts College ) gave us a guided tour of San Antonio (in Seamus's car, thank his boss for that, the AC was welcome with 34°C outside).
Years ago myself and Dave we took part in a gig in favor of a poor family in San Antonio, organised by Seamus's predecessor, Joe Campion, from ould Ireland too. The aim of the gig was to raise funds for the construction of this house. Previously, the whole family lived in a favella-type assortment of corrugated iron sheets, that would have been less than 2m in height.
The curch of the holy DIY. Joe Campion built this church himself, beside some protestant mega-buck-super-church-o-drome 20 times bigger.
Well, Jesus was born in a stable not much bigger than Joe's DIY church. At least, the spirit is there. Humble but solid. It may not look the part, but it walks the talk and does the trick!