
By Narbeh Minassian
Buenos Aires has always been something of a mystery. As the much maligned capital city of a historically troubled country, the city has such a recognizable name with such an unrecognizable identity. The name was given by the Spanish in 1324, meaning ‘fair winds’, which is on balance a fair indication of the area’s obvious potential that had remained untapped for so long. Recent statistics, however, suggest that Buenos Aires is addressing this eternal stigma, with the influx of international tourism in Argentina increasing by 27% in 2010, and with visitors to Buenos Aires rising by over a million in three years, its capital deserves the lion’s share of credit. Indeed, Buenos Aires is undergoing a process of reinvention.