Filete in San Telmo

On Tuesday in BA, we went to the barrio San Telmo, an old neighborhood, abandoned by the upperclass during the yellow fever epidemics when they moved to higher ground. It was taken over by the working class who just remodled the old colonial structures into smaller apartments and shops, and then later on it became an artist community. The have a famous street fair there every Sunday in the main plaza, but we went on a weekday when the place was very quiet.

We saw the showroom of Juan Carlos Pallarols, a world famous silversmith (cups for the Pope, things like that - see website www.pallarols.com ,ar -sorry,cant figure out how to make this a link) Amazing stuff with prices to match. Interesting, but a pretty cold place. The lady running the showroom was totally unimpressed with the fact that I did engraving.

So further on we came across examples of filete painting, a very ornate and fanciful type of sign painting that used to be everywhere and now is a dying art.
SC