Reluctantly Blogtastic: Villa Miseria

September 23^rd 6:30pm

Our other educational excursion was to a place called Villa 20. Argentina is one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America and has a large middle class, although the level of wealth is very different from in the US: the average income here is under $10,000/year, which is below the US poverty line. Although Buenos Aires is a fairly well-to-do city, there are certain areas called “Villa Miserias” (ostensibly, though I've only ever heard them called villas) which are extremely poor neighborhoods that lack basic infrastructure. Some are named but mostly they go by a numbering system, and the majority have been around since the second world war.

We left our school at 9am in a small bus (a micro, as they say here) and at a little before 10am our group arrived at el Centro de Acción Familiar Bartolome Mitre (CAF), a large building located on the outskirts of Villa 20. Immediately upon exiting el Micro, we were greeted by Bartolome Mitre himself, the resident dog of the CAF.

The original Bartolome Mitre was a dude, but I like the dog version.

The building itself is quite large, and on the inside looks like an elementary school, with little kid art hung on most of the walls, and classrooms full of children.

Upon filing into the library, we were greeted by Vicki, la educadora, Monica, the psychologist, and Margarita, the director of the program. Vicki, Monica and Margarita explained the history and mission of CAF: CAF is not a school, it's a center that provides support to the children and families of Villa 20. They provide educational support, sex education, mediation, violence prevention, financial education, and psychological services. They also have a library which was started with the personal books of the library employees and volunteers, and over time they have accumulated a large collection through fund-raising and gifts of books.

There are between 20 and 30 thousand residents in Villa 20, about 450 of them are children. The land on which the villa rests was previously a car dump, resulting in a high level of water and soil contamination, including high levels of lead. Lead in the soil and water can affect child development and intelligence, so this is a serious issue for the villa that they've been trying to combat, but it's hard with such limited resources. The infrastructure in the villa is significantly below the level of infrastructure in the rest of Buenos Aires. Water is accessible and the majority of the viviendas (homes) in Villa 20 have electricity, however there are no gas lines, so if they want to heat their homes or cook food, they need to buy gas by the canister. Most streets are unpaved, but there are a few paved streets now so that emergency vehicles can access the villa. The villas are arranged in “manzanas”, the name they use to refer to blocks in the villas, and some of the manzanas are within the contaminated zone while others are not.

Note the cute dog stretching on the stairs

We also discussed the idea of security as an important theme in the lives of the residents of the villas. Previously there was a strong presence of the policia federal, however residents felt that the police acted disproportionately and were too quick to use deadly force, so today instead of police the villas are patrolled by members of a branch of the military. In keeping with the theme of security, I noticed two interesting things. First, there were an incredible number of dogs, many of whom appeared to be pets, but some who were definitely guard dogs. Additionally, many homes have a wall around them, and in the top of the wall, the residents have embedded broken glass bottles in the cement in order to stop anyone from climbing over them.

Glass bottles embedded in the top of the wall

During our tour we also visited a community kitchen which serves food to children and pregnant women. They estimate that they serve around 200 people per day, and they operate from Monday to Friday. They also have a large space reserved for students to play futbol and other sports during the week and on the weekends. We learned that there is also a centro de salud (health center) within the villa so that residents do not need to travel all the way into other parts of the city.

The soccer "field" with houses in the background

Villa 20 was a mix of a variety of different types of residences, combined with many tiny shops and restaurants serving sandwiches, empanadas and pizza, among other things.

Although there are families who have lived in Villa 20 for generations, the majority are immigrants from Bolivia, and some immigrants from other Latin American countries such as Paraguay (though their children are typically Argentine citizens). One of my fellow students asked if there is frequent outward migration from the villas, if people move out as soon as they are financially able to do so, and he was surprised to learn that no, many people choose to remain in the villas. Vicki explained that many residents feel that their community is very important, and many of the Bolivian immigrants face racial discrimination in other neighborhoods, because Argentinians are very European, by and large, and most Bolivians have an indigenous heritage.

There are a number of cooperatives that provide work for people in the villa. The majority of the workers work in construction or in workshops, and in the villa workers make furniture and build housing for other residents of the villa. There is also a technical school for youths in the villa. The government provides funding for the construction of new viviendas, but the workers who build houses are paid a much lower rate than other construction workers in Buenos Aires, so this system is sometimes referred to as “la nueva esclavitud” (the new slavery), and it's a major point of contention.

Workers reinforcing the wall of an existing vivienda

I was surprised by certain aspects of Villa 20. When described in English, the villas were explained as being similar to a “shanty-town”, yet Villa 20 was made up of permanent residences instead of the typical lean-to and tarp situation that one might expect in a shanty-town. Certain areas of the Villa are more middle-class than others, with a great variety in the quality of living spaces. Another surprising item that I noted was the wide array of Direct TV satellite dishes. I don't know if the Villa receives any cable service, but based on the prevalence of Direct TV, I would be inclined to doubt it.

It's really fascinating how segregated the villas are (physically, economically and sometimes racially) from the rest of the community, and how unique the structure and community of the villas are. The villas are typically located within other wealthier neighborhoods of the city, rather than being scattered around the outskirts like you might expect. I feel like I had more assumptions about what the villa would be like than I thought I did before going, so I'm really glad I got to actually go and talk to residents of the villa.

Neocolonialism: