
Casa Rosada (the “pink house”) in Buenos Aires, is the name of the Argentinian Presidential Palace. Its pink colour was originally chosen (for an earlier building) by president Domingo Sarmiento (1868-74) to represent a combination betweeen the two feuding political traditions of nineteenth century Argentina - red for the Federalists and white for the Unitarians. Argentina's presidents have addressed the people from the balcony of the palace, but the most famous orator to use it was Evita Peron, so there was a huge controversy when film director Alan Parker obtained permission to use the balcony when filming his musical “Evita” in 1997, with Madonna in the title role.