¡Hola, queridos estudiantes intermedios! A student told me he wanted to learn more about the city of Buenos Aires. I immediately thought: my sister is number one on this topic! Recently, my sister Leila published a successful book called Rincones de Buenos Aires. I love the book, and it tells us so many things to discover about Buenos Aires, focusing on 200 special places. The book was so successful that Leila was invited to many TV and radio programs to talk about it. Here, I have selected one of the interviews she gave, uploaded to YouTube on June 6, 2025:
This same interview is in a different post for advanced students. If you want, you can watch it by clicking here.
In this post aimed at intermediate students, there is much more help. I have extracted the audio and provided a transcription and translation, and I have divided both into parts to make comprehension easier. Also, I made a list of difficult words followed by interactive games to help you learn them.
And, in addition, I will also send you some exercises in Google Docs so we can keep deepening this topic. And of course, we will talk about all this in our next class! That way, we can work on the four skills: reading, writing, listening comprehension, and speaking. Let’s get started!
IMPORTANTE: Este sitio web es exclusivamente para fines educativos y está dirigido sólo a mis estudiantes. Aunque mi sitio web está disponible en internet, el contenido es de uso privado para mis alumnos. No tengo la intención de infringir ningún derecho de autor y siempre proporciono enlaces a las publicaciones originales. Siempre adapto estas obras con un enfoque educativo, sin fines comerciales.
LET’S START READING AND LISTENING!
REMEMBER: The words and expressions in red are intended to enrich or review your vocabulary, with a list of them provided after the article. The words in blue are clickable and open a box linking to another post, usually focused on a grammar topic.
DIEGO: It’s difficult to do tourism in the city where you live. But when you try, you start to discover a lot of things, especially if you live in a city, in a megalopolis like Buenos Aires, right? That has everything, that you think you know and that you probably do know, but not with those eyes with which you can see the details, right? To stay looking at a commemorative plaque, a painting job, some sculpture, a fresco. I don’t know, whatever it may be. The architecture itself, is hard, right?
The rush, of coming and going. Always fast, hurried, typical of living in a city. But well, the one who stopped, who gave Buenos Aires the attention it deserves and who has transformed it into her first book, her new book actually, which is Corners of Buenos Aires, is Leila Aisen, who is a journalist specialized in travel. Leila, how are you doing? Good evening. My name is Diego Corbalán here on Continental. Thank you for joining us.
DIEGO: Pero, por favor. Bueno, contanos de qué se trata. ¿Éste es tu primer libro o no es tu primer libro?
LEILA: Es mi primer libro.
DIEGO: Ah, bueno, por eso. Ahí está. Así me… Bueno, felicitaciones.
LEILA: Hello, Diego. Good evening. How are you? Thank you very much for having me.
DIEGO: Oh, please. Well, tell us what it’s about. Is this your first book or not your first book?
LEILA: It’s my first book.
DIEGO: Ah, well, that’s why. There it is. That explains it… Well, congratulations.
DIEGO: Exactamente.
LEILA: Es un libro muy nuevo. Muy actualizado.
DIEGO: Bueno, ¿qué? ¿De qué se trata “Rincones de Buenos Aires”? ¿Por dónde indagaste?
LEILA: Thank you very much. It just came out, four days ago.
DIEGO: Exactly.
LEILA: It’s a very new book. Very up-to-date.
DIEGO: So, what is Corners of Buenos Aires about? Where did you investigate?
LEILA: Well, the introduction you gave was spectacular, excellent, because honestly, I wrote the book thinking about that. I love my city. I love Buenos Aires. Going out for a walk, exploring. And sometimes this happens, right? When you travel, you look deeply into which places to visit, you don’t want to waste a minute, but sometimes you neglect your own city. And the truth is that Buenos Aires has so many places to discover! And in this book, I reviewed more than two hundred places.
LEILA: De hecho, casi doscientos cincuenta lugares emblemáticos de la ciudad, algunos que son muy conocidos y otros que quizás pasaste mil veces por ahí y no sabías que estaban y con el libro los podés descubrir y decir: ¿cómo esto se me pasó de largo? Como, por no mirar con atención, por no mirar un poco para arriba, ¿no? Con una ciudad espectacular que tenemos, con todas las cúpulas y con toda la historia que tiene.
DIEGO: Yes.
LEILA: In fact, almost two hundred and fifty iconic places in the city, some that are very well known and others that you may have passed by a thousand times without knowing they were there, and with the book you can discover them and say: how did this slip past me? Like, for not looking carefully, for not looking a little upwards, right? With the spectacular city we have, with all the domes and all the history it has.
DIEGO: Yes, yes. Well, in fact, the tourists who come, especially the influencers, right? You see them so much on social media. Europeans, for example, can’t believe the diversity of styles, right? And cultures that they find within just a few blocks, right? Walking a little, they come across French style, Spanish style, English style. I mean, it’s a layering. Buenos Aires is such an interesting mosaic to explore.
DIEGO: Sí, sí.
LEILA: …que se pueden descubrir. Tenemos túneles. Realmente es una ciudad que lo tiene todo.
LEILA: That’s right, because Buenos Aires was built and rebuilt at different times. We even have ruins that many don’t know about, which you can go and discover. We have buildings from different eras. We even have buildings from the 1700s that are still standing…
DIEGO: Yes, yes.
LEILA: …that you can discover. We have tunnels. It really is a city that has it all.
LEILA: Bueno, yo soy de Morón.
DIEGO: Ah, soy de Morón. Bueno, está bien. Pero estás cerca.
DIEGO: Well, our historic district is probably one of the richest, right? In such deep history. Now, what…? While making the book, right? And well, I imagine you went place by place. What stayed with you? Let’s say. What impressed you the most about Buenos Aires? Trying to do what we said, right? To take a step back, since, I don’t know if you’re a porteña [from the City of Buenos Aires], but, let’s say, you’re knowledgeable about Buenos Aires and a researcher. What impressed you the most?
LEILA: Well, I’m from Morón [city west of Buenos Aires].
DIEGO: Ah, I’m from Morón. Well, that’s fine. But you’re close.
Algunos edificios que no puedo creer que no se conozcan. Algunas cosas que yo misma descubrí haciendo la investigación para mi libro. Regalos que hemos recibido de otros países, que están al frente de nosotros y que no los vimos. Por ejemplo, en Plaza Italia hay una columna romana, que nos regaló Roma, que tiene más de 2000 años…
LEILA: But the truth is, I’m a porteña because I have lived in Buenos Aires for fifteen years and I fell in love with this city. And that’s also why I wanted my first book to be about Buenos Aires. And something that impressed me is that there is something in every corner, and some things are not very well known.
Some buildings that I can’t believe aren’t known. Some things I discovered myself while doing research for my book. Gifts we have received from other countries, which are right in front of us and we didn’t see them. For example, in Plaza Italia [famous square in Buenos Aires], there is a Roman column, which Rome gave us as a gift, that is over 2000 years old…
LEILA: …y está ahí, en una esquina de la plaza, que nadie la ve, que nadie le presta atención, en el medio de tanto tránsito, pasan miles y miles de personas por día, ¿no? Y es algo que no vemos. Esto es algo que me sorprendió mucho. Y cuando fui, dije: “Claro, si yo pasé por acá un montón de veces”. La vi sin ver, ¿viste? A veces vamos tan apurados…
DIEGO: Exacto, sí.
DIEGO: Yes, yes, yes.
LEILA: …and it’s there, on a corner of the plaza, that no one sees, that no one pays attention to, in the middle of so much traffic, thousands and thousands of people pass by every day, right? And it’s something we don’t see. This surprised me a lot. And when I went, I said, “Of course, I’ve passed by here many times.” I saw it without really seeing it, you know? Sometimes we’re in such a hurry…
DIEGO: Exactly, yes.
DIEGO: Ahá. Mirá.
LEILA: Que está en la Plaza Miserere y el mausoleo es gigante. Y seguro lo viste y seguro todos lo vieron. Todos lo vimos. Y ahí están los restos de Rivadavia.
DIEGO: Sí, claro.
LEILA: …and we don’t pay attention. And there are things like these that are free, and you can see them any day. Another fact, for example, that surprised me, which is also in a square, is a mausoleum where a former Argentine president is buried, who actually requested not to be buried in Argentina because he died in Europe. And it’s Rivadavia [first president of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, precursor to Argentina].
DIEGO: Uh-huh. Look at that.
LEILA: It’s in Plaza Miserere [famous square in Buenos Aires], and the mausoleum is huge. And surely you’ve seen it and surely everyone has seen it. We’ve all seen it. And there lie the remains of Rivadavia.
DIEGO: Yes, of course.
LEILA: So, what an incredible city we have. Not only the historic buildings we have to see. And in the book, I also talk about notable bars, bodegones [traditional neighborhood bar or tavern] places to go see tango. But everything is focused on the history of the city. Every place in the book has a reason for being there and it’s not simply touristy, but it talks about the history of Buenos Aires.
DIEGO: Of course, of course. I was making a checklist of the places you researched. I know quite a few, but there are places I don’t, huh? There are places that didn’t come to mind, so I surely haven’t visited them. The city… Besides, well, Buenos Aires has the particularity of being quite different from other cities, not only in Argentina but in the region, right? It has a very, very unique identity.
DIEGO: No, claro.
LEILA: Yes, and each neighborhood has its own character. For example, we’ll go through the most historic neighborhoods, the historic center: Montserrat, San Nicolás, San Telmo, La Boca. But I also talk about Puerto Madero, which has a very interesting history, about how this neighborhood was built, which is the most expensive in Latin America. But it wasn’t like that before.
DIEGO: No, of course.
LEILA: A whole past history to discover, which perhaps porteños have already forgotten. Because we even had a plaza in Puerto Madero at one time, right? And they say that Buenos Aires always turned its back on the river, but at one time it didn’t turn its back on the river; the city’s appearance has changed a lot over time.
LEILA: Sí, en todas las librerías. Online. Así que espero que les guste mucho, Diego, y que descubras algún lugar nuevo y que después me cuentes.
DIEGO: Y sí, ya me estuve fijando. De hecho, tenemos en la familia, tenemos agendada la salida que es subirnos al bus turístico de la ciudad que todavía no hicimos. No nos subimos nunca. Es que yo…
DIEGO: Yes, it’s hard to reverse that situation, right? Becoming friends with the river while being here in the city is difficult. Well, more than interesting, Leila. And best of luck. So, fresh off the press, Corners of Buenos Aires. You can find it in bookstores.
LEILA: Yes, in all bookstores. Online. So I hope you like it a lot, Diego, and that you discover some new place and then tell me about it.
DIEGO: Yes, I’ve already been checking it out. In fact, in our family, we have planned to take the city’s tourist bus, which we haven’t done yet. We’ve never gotten on it. It’s just that I…
DIEGO: Perdón. Si yo hago una estadística. Si hago una estadística entre porteños, de diez, yo creo que se debe haber subido uno o dos.
LEILA: Totalmente, es así. Este libro. Yo dije: “Bueno, quiero sorprender a los porteños también, cuando lean el libro”.
DIEGO: Y seguramente lo vas a lograr. Bueno, Leila. Gracias, ¿eh?
LEILA: It’s spectacular!
DIEGO: Sorry. If I do a statistic. If I do a statistic among porteños, out of ten, I think one or two must have gotten on it.
LEILA: Totally, that’s how it is. This book. I said, “Well, I want to surprise the porteños too when they read the book.”
DIEGO: And you will surely achieve that. Well, Leila. Thank you, huh?
A FEW WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS WE WILL LEARN OR REVIEW!
1. LO QUE FUERE / LO QUE SEA: WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE
2. VORÁGINE: RUSH, MAELSTROM
3. INDAGAR: TO RESEARCH, TO INVESTIGATE, TO EXPLORE
4. PASEAR: TO STROLL, TO SIGHTSEE, TO WALK AROUND, TO DRIVE AROUND
5. RESEÑAR: TO REVIEW, TO OUTLINE, TO REPORT
6. SE ME PASÓ DE LARGO: I MISSED IT, IT SLIPPED PAST ME
7. CUADRA: BLOCK (STREET)
8. O SEA: I MEAN, THAT IS, LET’S SAY
9. ÉPOCA: ERA, PERIOD, AGE, EPOCH
10. CASCO: DISTRICT (FORMAL), HELMET (MAIN MEANING)
11. TOMAR DISTANCIA: TO STEP BACK
12. ENAMORARSE DE: TO FALL IN LOVE WITH
13. APURADO: IN A HURRY
14. ENTERRADO: BURIED
15. CENTRADO EN: FOCUSED ON
16. REGISTRAR: TO RECORD (MAIN MEANING) / TO COME TO MIND
17. LO SUYO: IT’S OWN THING
18. HASTA: (IN THIS CASE) EVEN
19. FIJARSE: (IN THIS CASE) TO CHECK OUT
And now, let’s play this game so you see how these expressions are used in real life:
