La Boca

A few months ago, at the start of my trip, I went to La Boca. La Boca is an interesting place with an interesting history. "La Boca" translated means "the mouth" that is a pretty good way to describe this place. Literally La Boca is the mouth of a river and a heavy industrial center. Ships are docked on the river front and you can see factories off in the distance. La Boca is also the birth place of soccer in Argentina. The two most famous teams in Argentina (River Plate and Boca) used to share the same neighbor until River moved up town - never-the-less the rivalry still remains today. The last and most visible element of La Boca is the tourist destination "El caminito" - a series of painted metal buildings where artist gather and people from all over go. This space was created by poor people as a way to transcend a poor neighborhood and unite the people that live there. The buildings are nothing more than the painted shacks made the left over paint and steel for the shipping industry near by.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to walk off the path that I first saw and see the other reality of La Boca distinct for the tourism and colored buildings - more human. We (our group) visited a group of people that were poor and homeless and decided to work together and build a community. Much in the same way people in the past decided to build el caminito as a for of solidarity and community, these people also decided to build buildings and unify themselves. The were many different branches, some local some governmental and some individual, basically these people worked in a co-op and banned their labor together. Some people were able to work in order to build apartments other people pay a very reduced rent. The common thread that runs through everything is a sense of community and togetherness that you can not fake. The feeling of being a part of a whole comes as much from sharing a bathroom with 20 others as it does from knowing that everyone is literally dependent on the work of the group for food, housing, health care, and support. I truly believe that this type of feeling can only exist in small groups where resources are communal.

For me one striking element of the trip was the use of space among the group. You can really see and understand the close contact that the people of co-op must have when you are in their spaces. First of all there is very little structure to the space. An office functioned as a living room, nursery, and computer room just as much as a place to get work done. As we walked through a door there was a small kitchen with and a hallway with construction tools. The large room was open but within the open space there were dividers of stills that separated the living space of one family and another's. The doors to each living area were nothing more than a old piece of wood or a curtain. Standing there you could hear all at once the crying of children, noise from the street, and sound of voices of various people. The only thing separating this space for the street was a haphazard building that had many holes large enough for a bird to make a nest and sunlight to shine through. In fact the building was so bad you could see the dripping water from the upstairs neighbor's bathroom.

You would never know by talking to anyone in this co op that they were unhappy with there living situation - quite the opposite in fact. Everywhere you looked you say smiling faces full of life. And the people were proud. There was no shame in the eyes of these people. They were more than willing to tell you how difficult it is to get the government to help.