Villa Itapí

Last friday I visited one of the largest and oldest "Villas Misereres" (slums with severly poor living conditions) in Gran Buenos Aires, Villa Itapí. About 50.000 inhabitants live in a densily populated place without paved ways, poor infrastructure, wedged between the barrio Don Bosco and the highway leading to Capital. A big marsh is located in the middle of the area, now serving as the biggest dump of the villa, and one can imaging how the moist settlement looks when it rains. Which made a big difference to the villas I saw so far was that Itatí has not been the result of a planned ocupation, but a product of the migration of the late 60ies and early 70ies when the people from the countryside numerously came to Buenos Aires in search for better living conditions. Therefore, huts, streets and public space are in a great muddle and the space for one family consits hardly out of more than a few square meters.

While displaying Argentinas most miserable sides, nevertheless I got in touch with astonishing projects there. In 2001, during the hardest time of Argentina´s recent history, the cartoñeros of the villa founded a cooperative to improve their situation. Cartoñeros names these men and women searching during the night for the recyclable parts of the rubbish of Argentina´s society. With their big collecting trolleys, cartoneros are one of the most characterizing elements of Argentinean streetscape, showing every night the big disparities of the country. Collecting the leftovers of richer parts of society is one of the few jobs available for people out of the poor settlements. In Villa Itatí the cartoñeros started to run their own collecting place, paying day by day about 150 men and women for what they collected in the city, financing with a percentage of the wage the employers and additionally cofinancing social projects for kids of the villa. Since my visit in Villa Itatí, I also know the price of my garbage, which is searched thoroughly night by night. Paper: 8ct/kilo; Plastic 26ct/kilo; Clothing 6ct/kilo; Glas 4ct/kilo.

Fotos found in Clarin.com and Fotolog.com