Un Futuro Desalojado
Buenos Aires
The Argentinian economic crisis has worsened over the past year. Inflation is rising and the purchasing power of citizens is at its annual minimum in December 2023. Families struggle to pay rent and maintain their residences.
In Buenos Aires, gentrification policies and real estate speculation have left many communities with no money. People squat in the places they have always lived, or sleep in vans parked along the streets. It’s indeed common to find people in situación de calle, that is homeless.
These issues are worse in some neighborhoods. One example is La Boca, where the administration of the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA) declared an urban emergency in 2006. Since 2012, the city has been pushing the Distrito de las Artes into La Boca: the government wants to promote private investments in real estate with favorable tax conditions. Nevertheless, this barrio currently has few cultural spaces. People provide mutual assistance through ‘comedor’ (free community canteens) that rely on donations. The journal Tiempo Argentino reported 250 eviction cases in April 2023.
Another neighborhood where people squat in entire condominiums is Almagro. It’s been populated by the middle class since the 1970s, when people came to Buenos Aires looking for fortune.
The central bank indexed the interest rates of mortgages to levels unbearable by the middle class with a law from 1980. The debts contracted to buy houses exceeded their values and many places were left crumbling: nowadays families squat in them. On the other hand, the owners are selling them to privates, forcing the CABA to evict those who live there.
In Buenos Aires I aimed to understand the social situation and popular sentiment behind gentrification. So, I visited 9 families, 13 conventillos (residential buildings of European immigrants from the late 1800s made with laminate metal, timber and bricks), and 2 comedor in La Boca. Marcela, 52, manages one near the Bombonera, the Boca Juniors’ stadium. She has resisted eviction attempts by CABA for 20 years.
I went to a condominium in calle Venezuela, located in Almagro. 15 families live there. It has been sold to privates and the CABA should evict the residents in April 2024. Ana has lived here with her daughter for 17 years.
Living in these places is like plunging into the past. Feelings are bitter due to the dangers, but earning people’s trust reveals a poor but happy community that would die if transplanted elsewhere.
