Buenos Aires Streets Come Alive on BorgesLiterary Walking Tour

Writer Daniel Mecca leads the BorgesTour, an immersive experience that transforms the streets of Buenos Aires into a metaphysical landscape, tracing the literal and symbolic paths of Jorge Luis Borges. The tour operates on the premise that literature is "quantum," capable of revealing poetic insights on any street corner.

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From my side, for more than a decade I have been trying to create new angles to look at Borges's work, in this case through a walk through Buenos Aires. Borges's literature is quantum, a leap of probabilities where the "Borgesian" can happen at any moment. That's why, for me, the "Borgesian" is also that feeling of not staying still. Nobody steps into the same Borges twice.

Over the years, the tour's itinerary has evolved. Initially focusing on Buenos Aires's micro-center, including the street where Borges was born and the university faculty where he taught, it later shifted towards Recoleta to cultivate a more ancestral narrative around his figure. Mecca, also the creator of the BorgesPalooza literary festival, explains that the tour seeks to highlight Borges's "territoriality" over the city's streets, mirroring how he engaged with the urban environment through his writing.

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The BorgesTour seeks to transmit Borges's territoriality over the streets, just as he did with his literature. Borges, symbolically and literally, was a territorial writer.

Mecca collaborates with Miguel de Torre Borges, the writer's nephew, to ensure the tour's historical and biographical accuracy. This collaboration, which Mecca describes as one of the most beautiful events of his life, involves verifying details and correcting misconceptions about Borges. Mecca, with his journalistic background, prioritizes sourcing information directly from Borges's family.

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I remember the phone calls to his house to ask for some data, which he always answered with generosity and patience. Miguel had a lot of enthusiasm for the data of his uncle's life to be transmitted faithfully. Besides, coming from a journalistic tradition and training, I always have a tendency to go to the sources. What better, in this case, than Borges's own nephew. Meeting him was one of the most beautiful events of my life.

A key aspect of the BorgesTour is to address and rectify common misunderstandings about Borges's work, particularly the misconception that his significant writings were produced in Europe. Mecca emphasizes that Borges created his most important literature, especially from the 1940s, using the materials and experiences found in Buenos Aires, a point also noted by critic Ricardo Piglia. The tour uses the city's locations to reconstruct Borges's biography and the context of his literary production.

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There is a mistaken idea that is usually present in the imagination of some visitors, especially foreigners, that Borges's work was produced in Europe, and they are surprised when they tour those sites in Buenos Aires where Borges, precisely, walked and produced the core of his most important work, especially from the 40s.