The relaunch of San Telmo’s Historic Quarter, featuring the painting Believed to Have inspired Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portraits and the House where Louis XVII lived after escaping the guillotine, together with the 400th Anniversary of Pato and the Visit of European Nobility, Signal the Dawn of a New Argentine Golden Age.
Buenos Aires reclaims its place on the international cultural map through a historic celebration where art, history, aristocratic heritage, gastronomy, and national identity converge. This event brings together a series of symbolic milestones which, when read as a whole, announce the beginning of a new Argentine Golden Age.
At a national level, the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Pato, Argentina’s national sport, stands as one of the central pillars of this celebration. Rooted in horsemanship, honor, and rural culture, Pato embodies the aristocratic and popular foundations of Argentine identity, creating a historical bridge between past and present.
400 Years of Pato
The official final of Argentina’s national sport was held in an exceptional setting.
El Siasgo emerged as the grand winner of this historic edition.
The event brought together distinguished figures from the diplomatic, institutional, entrepreneurial, and cultural spheres, including Peter Lamelas, U.S. Ambassador; Nicolás Pino; Jorge Gold; Andrés Prieto Fasano; Éléonore de la Rochefoucauld; Damián Gravagna; Sophie Alurralde;
Marcos Ottogalli; Guillermo Moccero; Mariana Lagomarsino and Dexter Love, among others.
Following the final match, guests were invited to an exclusive cocktail reception accompanied by a tasting of Huentala wine, recognized as Argentina’s Best Wine, closing the sporting celebration in an atmosphere of elegance and tradition.
In parallel with this national milestone, Buenos Aires welcomed the visit of European nobility, reviving the spirit of the great cultural exchanges that historically positioned Argentina as a natural bridge between Europe and the Americas. Their presence added an international and symbolic dimension to the event, reinforcing the country’s renewed cultural visibility on the global stage.
Relaunch of San Telmo’s Historic Quarter
San Telmo District @santelmodistrict
District of Antiques, History, and Gastronomy
Organized by THE PRESIDENTS, founded and directed by Sergio Morinigo
San Telmo, one of Buenos Aires’ oldest and most emblematic neighborhoods, became the setting for the relaunch of its historic, artistic, and gastronomic circuit—an initiative aimed at revaluing its heritage and consolidating its identity as a cultural district with international projection.
This edition was developed under the symbolic theme of “The Argentine Grand Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition,” revisiting the vision through which President Julio A. Roca once presented Argentina to the world as a nation of culture, progress, and refinement.
Within this framework, The Presidents, under the direction of Sergio Morinigo, curated a special itinerary for international press and business leaders, structured around three stations connecting history, art, architecture, and gastronomy.
STATION 1 — San Telmo Louis XVII
The journey began at the corner of Bolívar and Independencia, a site where—according to local tradition—Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, is believed to have lived after escaping the fate of the guillotine that claimed his parents.
At this historically charged location, hosted by Lado Bueno, painter Lionel Pacheco presented two previously unseen oil paintings, marking the official opening of the circuit at the station titled “San Telmo Louis XVII.”
The inclusion of this house within the relaunch narrative introduced a powerful layer of European historical memory to the neighborhood, reinforcing San Telmo as a space of exile, refuge, and cultural continuity.
STATION 2 — San Telmo Antiques District
The circuit continued by bus along Bolívar and Defensa Streets, crossing the heart of San Telmo’s historic antiques corridor, with highlighted stops at emblematic venues:
• Guevara Gallery (Art Deco)
• Alhambra (National Historical Artifacts)
• Roldán Sculptures (Marble)
• Santostefano Sculptures (Bronze)
• Hernani Antiques, where an original fragment of the Argentine Grand Pavilion of 1889 was presented, alongside the unveiling of “The Argentine Frida Kahlo,” a work by Argentine painter César Augusto Caggiano.
The unveiling of this painting—symbolically linked to the period preceding Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits—served as a metaphor for origin, identity, and cultural introspection, echoing Argentina’s current moment of historical reflection.
This station also included:
• A pass by San Pedro Telmo Church
• A visit to the reopening of the historic Café Plaza Dorrego, a cultural landmark of the neighborhood
• A complete drive-through of the Defensa Street antiques corridor, without entering the shops.
STATION 3 — San Telmo Gastronomic Hub
The circuit concluded with a celebration of San Telmo’s culinary identity. Guests enjoyed:
• A dry-aged meat tasting at Sagardi
• A closing celebration at the newly opened Bar Babel, one of the neighborhood’s most significant recent openings
International Guests:
The relaunch welcomed distinguished guests from various cities around the world:
• Dubai: Countess Éléonore de la Rochefoucauld
• Paris: Sophie Alurralde
• New York: Dexter Love
• Buenos Aires: Guillermo Moccero VONHARV owner and Mariana Lagomarsino
• Córdoba: Andrés García
• Brazil: Sandra Bronziña
Their presence reaffirmed the event’s international character and consolidated San Telmo’s global projection as a cultural district.
A New Argentine Golden Age
Art as origin, sport as national soul, nobility as a cultural bridge, gastronomy as living heritage, and San Telmo as historic heart converge into a single narrative. The 400th anniversary of Pato and the relaunch of San Telmo’s historic quarter do more than commemorate the past—they project a vision for the future.
Buenos Aires once again emerges as a city of elegance, cultural authority, and international resonance—unmistakably signaling the dawn of a new Argentine Golden Age.
POINT OF VIEW: CÉSAR AUGUSTO CAGGIANO AND FRIDA KAHLO
Frida Kahlo was shaped within a Latin American visual environment in which frontal portraits, symbolic painting, devotional aesthetics, and reinterpreted academic models circulated widely. Within this context, César Augusto Caggiano emerged as the main reference. His works were reproduced, traveled through exhibitions, and became part of the regional artistic imagination. Frida absorbed this visual language and radicalized it, transforming it into something autobiographical, political, bodily, and feminine, while also aligning it politically with the Left.
TIMELINE AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT
In 1916, Caggiano gained international recognition as Best Painter in San Francisco for his portrait of Juanita Malatesta. Throughout the 1910s, his work and aesthetic circulated broadly across artistic circles. In 1925, Frida suffered her life-altering accident, and in 1926 she painted her first self-portrait. During the 1930s, the self-portrait was consolidated in her work as a powerful identity manifesto.
CÉSAR AUGUSTO CAGGIANO: INFLUENCE AND LEGACY
César Augusto Caggiano was the youngest award-winning painter in Argentine history, and in 1919 one of his paintings received first prize in California. His lunarist studies, developed through his travels in Europe, made him a pioneer of this style in Argentina. Ricardo Montes I Bradley, a critic of the time who was later exiled in Mexico and an ardent admirer of Caggiano’s work, became the connecting figure between Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Caggiano.
RICARDO ERNESTO MONTES I BRADLEY: THE CRITICAL LINK
Ricardo Ernesto Montes I Bradley was an art curator and writer and the most important critic of Caggiano’s work. A fervent admirer, he actively promoted Caggiano internationally, writing extensively about his artistic virtues and helping to circulate his work around the world. He became a close friend of Diego Rivera, and through him Frida Kahlo met Rivera, a connection that would prove decisive in her personal and artistic life.
FRIDA KAHLO AND CAGGIANO’S VISUAL ECHO
Frida, ten years before her accident and before beginning her series of self-portraits, admired Caggiano and considered him a key reference. The similarity between Frida’s first self-portrait and one of Caggiano’s paintings is striking, extending even to the clothing worn by the figures.
