One of the most interesting things about Argentina is its cultural confusion. Go back to my first post from Buenos Aires and my immediate impression of the city was its european feel. With a mix of French, Italian, and Spanish architecture, there's little to indicate where BA is located. Looking at the faces of people walking around, one struggles to reach a concrete conclusion. Kirchner, as you might have guessed, isn't an indigenous name, and one of the priests I interviewed was named Jorge Oesterheld.
Day one, sitting in my hotel room in the "micro centro" of the city, I could have been anywhere but Latin America. Day two, my interviews for
my first article quickly reminded me where I was. There's a sharp divide between European culture and Latin American culture in Argentina. Nowhere is that divide clearer than in the "villas", or slums, of Buenos Aires.
Here, people look different. Speaking with my contacts confirmed fears about discrimination and de facto segregation. The photos below remind me so much of what I saw outside of Mexico City in 2006: a mash of concrete block houses, farm animals, and dirt streets. The villas are isolated ghettos: places without running water, sewage systems, or much of a police presence. They've grown out of peoples' need to survive. They stretch for miles, and there is little consensus about what needs to be done.
I would have gotten closer, but these aren't places where a 6'2" white guy easily blends in. Many of these photos were take from on overpass. My driver Leo was uncomfortable even stopping and rolling down the window. I had to convince him to let me leave the vehicle for even a few seconds.
