I should not be surprised that thousands are living under the bridges and highways in Buenos Aires, since it is something of a tradition even commented in old tangos. The slang word "atorrante", meaning petty criminal, originates from Torrent, the name of a public works minister in the early 20th Century. "Atorrantes" were those who lived in the large cement drainage pipes of Torrent's infrastructure works. The atorrante tradition, which I knew only in tangos, has reappeared and is now called cartonero. Clarin writes on the "cartoneros" - people who lives in carton boxes under the highways:
El campamento más grande de los bajo-autopista es el de Caseros y General Hornos. “Son familias de cartoneros y no generan problemas. No tienen agua ni baños y hacen sus necesidades en la calle, a metros del hospital de niños Pedro Elizalde".The largest camp is in Caseros, a suburb of Buenos Aires. They are cartonero families and create no problems. They have no running water and defecate on the street, near the Children's Hospital.
11 comments:
To defecate in the street near a hospital is not a "problema"? Will it be a problem when the patients get cholera? I realize a true European welfare state is not in their budgets, but perhaps they could swing some public toilets?
K
I never saw such a thing, and spent my youth in the barrios. Argentina has stopped being an European country, if it ever was.
it is very sad that usually the travelers see the beautiful face of Buenos Aires when actually the city is degenerating with the amounts of garbage on the streets, unemployment and public health issues like the one you mention in this blog. But al pueblo pan y circo! menawhile the whole country is sick of football, who cares about this problems!
Last time I looked at a map, Argentina was not in Europe. Perhaps the Argentines always imagined themselves to be more "European" than they really were (economically and culturally and perhaps even to some extent racially) In Chile during the recent looting I was shocked to see that even though Chile is ostensibly as "European" as Argentina, the looters were distinctly non-European (Amerindian) in their features - what is considered "white" or "Spanish" is sometimes more of a matter of cultural perception or self-definition than genetic reality. I have the feeling that in a lot of the former Spanish colonies, Spanish men would often immigrate without wives, would marry local Indian women and they would consider their children to be "Spanish" despite their mixed blood.
This recent study shows that Ashkenazim and Sephardim are closely related by blood (BUT ONLY IN THE MALE LINE). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html?src=me&ref=homepage
The article glosses over the male line thing entirely. If Ashkenazim and Sephardim are so closely related how to account for the obvious differences in appearance (and also the differences in intelligence)? My theory is that again Jewish males married local women and that the raised their offspring as Jews. Jewish men have always been attracted to a good looking shiksa, even in Biblical times. We are familiar with the period from maybe the 18th century onward where Jewish communities were well established and isolated enough that there were strong taboos against intermarriage but there must have been some early period where individual male Jewish merchants had arrived, there was not yet a strong community, no rabbis, etc. Once the blood is mixed, there is no un-mixing of it later - thus you end up with Jews who look like Bar Refaeli (and Yemenite Jews who are as brown as any desert sheikh). Also implied in the article is that the Ethiopian and Indian "Jews" are not really Jewish at all (in their bloodlines) They are "closer to the host populations" genetically. Possibly some early Jewish merchants showed up and converted their servants/slaves who then carried on (a watered down and ignorant form) of the religion even after the master's bloodline died out. I weep to think that Israel has had to gather up floor sweepings like these while every day in '42, '43, '44 thousands of brilliant Ashkenazic jewels were being cast into the fires.
This being the leftist rag NYT, one must read this article as if reading the old Pravda - as much is omitted or spun as is correctly stated so you have to read between the lines to understand the true import of the study. Of course, this is a little better than their other tactic - if something is too far from their preferred leftist narrative for them to be able to spin it into something palatable, they try to ignore it altogether (e.g. there was no mention of the Helen Thomas affair until she actually resigned).
K
I have to go to BA next month. Twice.
Hopefully, not the Hotel Cartoneros.
Anon.
To Anon - the general pattern in Latin America (and Argentina was at one time more or less an exception) is that there is very little middle class. Either you have the rich living in splendid luxury , or you have the poor living in their favelas and barrios (or cartons). Hopefully you as a visitor would fall in the former category.
Any city has its contrasts - there are parts of Philadelphia that would set your hair on end, where most tourists (with any sense) never venture and other parts that are as pretty and civilized as any. I think the same will be true in Buenos Aires and you are more likely to zoom by in your taxi on the topside of the Autopista than visit the people living on its underside.
K
Dear K
Thank you for your concern.
I am more familiar with Africa than South America, but I dare say it is much the same; the rich, the poor, and occasionally, an embattled and threatened middle class in between.
It is indeed unlikely I will be staying at the Hotel Cartoneros; and sadly, unlikely to meet the next Eva Peron.
Anon.
Anon,
Low profile in Buenos Aires is a must. Dont call the attention of the criminals searching for victims. Be careful with taxis. Well, I am sure you are aware where you are.
Thank you. I will take pains to blend in.
My family assures me I will have no trouble, with my Soviet-era suit, pre-exploded underwear, Zimbabwean currency and a dog-eared copy of Don Segundo Sombra. I will be of less interest to the criminals than they are to me.
Anon.
With that outfit, you will call the criminals attention but they will so repelled that they will run away. Or maybe they will have pity on you and drop a donation in your hat.
K
I would be careful with Zimbabwean currency in Argentina. Trading in foreign currency may land you in the Ushuaia penal colony. On the other hand, you will enjoy for free the sight of sea lions breeding on the beach, its collapsing icebergs and the Nazi settlement of Bariloche (excellent chocolate!).
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