Museo del Puerto

On Bahía Blanca’s eastern edge, the 19th-century docks of Puerto Ingeniero White were—and still are—Argentina’s most important port outside Buenos Aires. Nearly half the country’s grain exports leave from here. It was also a thriving multiethnic community with a vigorous street life (though it’s now less so), and one of Argentina’s most engaging museums still carries the torch for White’s immigrant heritage.

The Museo del Puerto occupies the former customs house (1907), which sits inconspicuously atop pilings. Built by Ferrocarriles del Sud, the English-owned southern railway, the rehabbed building houses “a museum of local lifestyles” as reflected in social institutions like barbershops (each immigrant community had its own, represented here by caricature mannequins). Other exhibits include bars, classrooms, and shops.

Named for an Anglo-Argentine engineer by former President Julio A. Roca in 1901, Puerto Ingeniero White actually dates from 1885, when it went by the name “Nueva Liverpool.” At the time, the Argentine government actively promoted immigration, with certain restrictions (one official announcement said: “Workers required: if English, French or German, good. No weaklings, sick or anarchists accepted”).

Today, though, some of White’s inhabitants—who prefer to call themselves whitenses rather than bahienses—consider the port something of a ghost town, with the decline of its ethnic bars, barbershops, and clubs. Every June, though, they gather to honor San Silverio, the patron saint of fishermen from Ponza, Italy (in Italy, San Silverio puts to sea in June, but here the festival takes place in November because the seasons are reversed).

The Museo del Puerto (Guillermo Torres 4180, tel. 0291/457-3006, mpuerto@bb.mun.gba.gov.ar) is normally open 4–8 p.m. weekends only, but it closes the entire month of January. During the week, it usually hosts school field trips, but private morning visits are possible by phoning ahead. Admission is free of charge, but they request a small donation.

In addition to the permanent exhibits, the museum has an archive with documents, photographs, and recorded oral histories, in both audio and video. A planned expansion will include information on the railroad.

When the museum is open, the kitchen offers meals based on immigrant cookbooks. From downtown Bahía Blanca, colectivo Nos. 500 and 501 take passengers almost to the front door.