Today, we went to La Boca again because there was so much left to explore. I also needed to buy gifts for my friends and family. After, we went to the Museum of Immigrants. The museum was built from an old hotel for immigrants. In Argentina, there was a large wave of immigration, especially southern europeans because agriculture was developing. Argentina had fertile land, but lacked the manpower to use the land. The hotel was created for immigrants who didn’t have family or a job in Argentina. They were taught the necessary farming skills, since most of them were previously factory workers. In addition, this isolation prevented the spread of diseases from other countries to Argentina, especially since there weren’t any vaccines.

At the hotel, each room held about 250 people; however, once everyone went to work, the rooms were ventilated and cleaned with bleach. In Argentina, immigration is a human right, unless they have a criminal record. In the US, immigration is frowned upon, even though we were built by immigrants. However, Argentina doesn’t assist with integration into society to be nice. Instead, they didn’t want overcrowding in cities or homelessness. Once immigrants became financially stable, they returned to their home countries. However, this concept hurt the Argentinian economy because they weren’t giving back to the country, especially when Argentina provided them housing, food, and jobs through the hotel.

After the Museum of Immigrants, we went to Museo etnografico. The museum focused on indigenous culture and the need to preserve the artifacts. In addition, the museum included artifacts from other countries like Egypt, Chile, China, and Bolivia.