2.1 The Villas of Buenos Aires The city of Buenos Aires in Argentina is a major metropolitan center of the western hemisphere. The city has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world and considered as one of the most diverse cities in Latin America. The mass immigration over the years has also given rise to many informal settlements called “Villa Miseria” (village of miseries), “Villas de Emergencia” (emergency villages), “Villa Flammable” etc. The villas are widely spread in the older and the newer parts of the city. These settlements consist of small houses or shacks made of tin, wood and other scrap material and they lack basic service infrastructure. Although the squatter towns contribute largely to the economic output of the city, the political reception to the existence of these settlements have been mixed as the country had been through tremendous political turbulences.
Villa 21-24 La Villa 21 - 24 - NHT Zavaleta is a slum located in the neighborhoods of Barracas and New Pompei. It is the largest and most populated villa. It is the location of the headquarters of the Central House of Popular Culture, under the former Ministry of Culture of the Nation. It is a neighborhood of 45,000 inhabitants, cornered by the Riachuelo. The neighborhood is always involved in police chronicles. A deeper insight into the settlement shows that other things are also happening: more than 20 community dining spaces, artistic and cultural groups working with local kids, rehab centers, etc.
Villa Inflammable Three thousand people live below the smoke stacks of petroleum refineries and alongside chemical storage sites, among rubbish and debris, and foul bodies of water, in “Villa Inflamable”, a slum along the banks of the Matanza-Riachuelo river, which runs across the Argentine capital. The Matanza-Riachuelo, or “slaughter stream” in English, is a river in Buenos Aires so contaminated it is flammable. It’s one of the most pestilent and rotten places in the world, where close to 11,000 people exposed to all kinds of infectious diseases, strange blood pathologies, heavy carcinogenic metals, and large refuse piles.
Villa 1-11-14 The 1-11-14 Villa is located in the southern neighborhood of Flores , in an area known as Bajo Flores. Its origin was due to the merger of the villas 1, 11 and 14, which began to populate progressively in the 1940s, 1 giving the current name to the settlement. Its first inhabitants came from the interior of Argentina and from bordering countries, after the economic crisis of 1930. Throughout the history was known with diverse names: Villa Bajo Flores, Bonorino, 9 of Julio, Perito Moreno, Medio Caño, Evita etc. It is the largest emergency village in terms of territory of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and one of the largest in terms of population. The urbanization of the town was approved by law 403, approved on June 8, 2000 by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires.
Fig 2.0 Map showing the Villas of Buenos Aires. Courtesy: Rezanic-pre-thesis -2012
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