Hidden City – Villa (Shantytown) 15

In the interest of contributing to general knowledge, and so as to
place the following analysis into a larger context, we outline in this
section the principal aspects of the community: its institutions, its
origins, and the principal characteristics of Conviven.
We find it fitting, to this end, to retrace the history of the
neighborhood so as to understand the characteristics of its
inhabitants and its main problems.

The true name of the neighborhood is "Barrio General Belgrano," but it
began to be known as the "hidden city" following the Soccer World Cup
of 1978, when the military dictatorship erected a barrier wall so as
to hide the sight of the slum from the eyes of visiting foreigners.
Its beginnings date to 1937, when the area was populated by workers
from the city's Cattle Market as well as the Railway and the
Meatpacking Plant of the Lisandro de La Torre company. This was when
internal migration within the country began and the first of these
slums (known as "villas miserias", literally "shantytowns of misery")
were established. As Maria Cravino describes it: "This urban process
goes hand in hand with the beginning stages of industrialization,
which was to take the place of importation. Nevertheless, the rate of
urban population growth was greater than the growth of the industrial
population, thereby creating a group of persons who were marginalized
from the process of production or from stable insertion into urban
life. This brought with it an accelerated expansion of the
metropolitan area, together with the consolidation of improvised and
'illegal' forms of dwelling, such as those of the villas or slums."
(Cited from Las organizaciones villeras en la Capital Federal entre
1989 - 1996. Entre la Autonomia y el Clientelismo.)
With the subsequent onset of immigration from neighboring countries,
the population's heterogeneity continued to reconfigure itself. Sixty
percent of the neighborhood's population today is Argentine and the
majority of the remaining population is Paraguayan and Bolivian. This
fact, which highlights the population's heterogeneity, is a point of
reference for the cultural diversity of the Hidden City, a diversity
which has begun to be woven into the interior of its culture.
Distinctive cultural expressions have made space for one another:
differing customs coexist, or they converge so as to create new
customs.

In the last 20 years the population of Villa (Shantytown) 15 has grown
notably, and its situation has acutely worsened with every crisis that
the country has gone through.
On the edge of the villa, separated by a "street", is the "Eva Perón"
Transitory Living Nucleus. This area, known by neighbors as "the new
neighborhood" or "the Strips" (because of the form in which the
streets and the houses are positioned), was created as part of the
Plan of Slum Eradication which was undertaken by the last
dictatorship. The plan consisted of moving villa residents to these
houses, which were more separated and "ordered" than the villa
dwellings, so as to later be moved into apartment buildings – thus its
characterization as "transitory", even though, in reality, that was
not to be the case. According to Father Sebastián, parish priest of
the Villa 15 chapel, the term transitory "was a concoction to get
people out of the villa and move them into a more dehumanizing place,
to get them living separately from one another so as to get them used
to living in apartments". Because of this disposition, in the Nucleus
there are fewer bonds between neighbors. There is also greater apathy
and greater individualism. Many of the people with whom we talked
agreed that, in addition to there being a division between people of
the villa and people of the "new neighborhood", "it's not the same to
be from the nucleus as it is to be from the villa".
The inhabitants of Villa 15 today live in conditions of extreme
poverty, overcrowding, and insecurity. Their housing structures are
highly unstable and unsafe, while they themselves are excluded and
socially vulnerable.
The verdict of exclusion and marginalization which society has
pronounced upon them has, over time, been responsible for creating the
historic barrier of "inside and outside", which doesn't allow one to
see beyond the problems which afflict the population. The principal
problems revolve around the impossibility of residents' gaining access
to essential services and rights such as education, employment and
healthcare; on top of which there are problems such as violence, drug
addiction and delinquency, afflictions which, for as much as they take
place in the society at large as well, have an even greater impact
within the neighborhood. Currently, according to reports from several
institutional sources of reference, the most significant problem has
been caused by the appearance in the neighborhood of "pasta base"
(unprocessed cocaine), also known as "paco", which due to its high
level of addiction and its low cost (one peso per hit), has been
gaining territory amongst young people. At the same time, the brief
period of the drug's effect (20 minutes) creates such desperation that
it causes these young people to recur to robbery or to selling their
own things, to the end of getting together the money to be able to
purchase the drug. This has repercussions within the neighborhood and
increases the insecurity within it.
Another significant problem for those who live in the villa is related
to land ownership. Technically, none of the residents are owners of
the places which they occupy, since the lands would legally be
considered property of the state. This fact instills in the residents
a fear of possible eviction, for which they would have no legal
recourse.
So as not to tie ourselves down to a mere enumeration of problems, we
highlight again the importance of thinking through these issues
without dismissing them as something intrinsic to the dynamics of only
the villa – seeing them rather as complex problems, which are
reflections of the Social Issues of the day.
The Community has a series of institutions which form a part of the
resources which the population is able to rely on.
One particularly important place within the neighborhood, especially
for the geography and the identity of the villa, is the so called
"White Elephant". This building which is several floors high and can
be seen from several blocks around, is the skeleton of a hospital, the
construction of which was begun but never finished, by the government
of Perón. Lacking windows or doors, it currently functions as the
CeSAC (Health Center) number 5, another of the institutions with
relevance to the community. "The Little Hospital", as it is known to
people, was moved in October of 2004 to a new building, located a few
meters "outside" of the villa. According to a social worker from this
institution, the change of building was beneficial in terms of greater
comfort and privacy during consultations, but "the big disadvantage is
that it looks like a hospital", a fact which often inhibits the villa
residents from making use of it.
The intervention of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires in the
neighborhood has taken place fundamentally through the Zonal Social
Services, which is a part of the Centers of Management and
Participation. In this case, the corresponding office is located in
zone number 8. This office takes on the task of meeting the requests
of people who go there in person. In the past, this office also
undertook community work and was in direct contact with grass-roots
organizations, but due to a directive from the General Direction this
work has been set aside, something which make it more difficult for
social workers to be present within the villa, as well as within all
of the other neighborhoods of the area.
In addition, both the Villa 15 and the Nucleus (separately) are
organized into Neighborhood Commissions which are directed by a
president. This president is elected by the area's residents via
direct vote and is the person who is in charge of matters such as the
distribution of materials, repairs of streets and pathways, trash
collection, and illumination, amongst other things.
In addition to those already mentioned, the community is also served
by other institutions, amongst which should be noted the presence of
almost forty soup kitchens/food banks, community and recreation
centers (of which Conviven is one), kindergartens, chapels and nearby
schools.
Information adapted from the Diagnostic of the Students of Social
Work, the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos
Aires, Level II, 2005, Area of Preprofessional Practice in the Centro
Conviven.
Translated by Scott Ferree

Datos aportados por el Diagnostico de los estudiantes de Trabajo Social, de la Carrera de Ciencias Sociales de la UBA, Nivel II, año 2005, Campo de Practica Pre Profesionales del Centro Conviven