“This Is Boedo” Stories of a Lost Football Stadium, a Buenos Aires Barrio, and How the Hinchas of San Lorenzo Fought to Return
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“This is Boedo” Stories of a lost football stadium, a Buenos Aires barrio, and how the hinchas of San Lorenzo fought to return by Matthew Hawkins A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Specialization in Political Economy Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2017 Matthew Hawkins Abstract Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is one of Argentina’s largest professional football teams. In 1979, during Argentina’s civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983), the club was forced to close its stadium the Gasómetro located on Avenida La Plata in the Buenos Aires barrio (neighbourhood) of Boedo. The property became a Carrefour retail store in 1985. Clubs in Argentina are large member-operated social, culture, and sport institutions offering a wide range of activities alongside professional football. Clubs are often identified with their place in the urban landscape. The idealized club de barrio (neighbourhood club) of Buenos Aires, in particular, has had a profound social and cultural influence on the production of the barrio as a space in the city. In turn, the historic relationship between the barrio and the club generates a sense of belonging that hinchas feel towards their club’s barrio. San Lorenzo’s hinchas claim that through the loss of the old Gasómetro their connection to Boedo was unjustly severed. Over the past fifteen years a social movement organized by the club’s hinchas (supporters) called the Vuelta a Boedo (Return to Boedo) grew into a politically successful campaign to regain the property with the hope of one day building a new stadium. This dissertation examines how the Vuelta a Boedo generated a politicized narrative that draws from the history of the club, the performative solidarity of the football crowd, a politics of memory and justice, and the collective storytelling of hinchas of San Lorenzo. It argues that an intertextual reading of Argentina’s football crowds and the country’s political-economy more generally is required to understand how the Vuelta a Boedo emerges. Shared memories of the Gasómetro refract through the claims made by human rights organizations to articulate why the loss of the stadium should be perceived as a social injustice. This dissertation demonstrates how hinchas and their football clubs to contribute to the production of urban space. Finally, the dissertation argues for the centrality of the affective relationships between hinchas produced and mediated through their match-day performances. i Acknowledgements “Madmen open the paths which are later traversed by the wise.” - Carlo Dossi In an interview from 1999, Adolfo Res promised to the camera that with $30 million pesos he would buy the Carrefour on Avenida La Plata and rebuild the Gasómetro out of wood. Later in 2011, members of the Subcomisión del Hincha uploaded this video with the epigraph by Dossi. This dissertation is indebted to the story crafted out of the “loco” dreams and actions of hinchas of San Lorenzo. My deepest gratitude is extended to the many cuervos, too many to name individually, who shared their lives and passion with me. Thank you to the Malditos for letting me stand with you at your paravalancha, the long distance away trips, and the post-match commiserating, thank you to the muchachos at the Bar San Lorenzo for including me in your lunch-time banter and sharing your memories of the Viejo Gasómetro, to the members of the Subcomisión del Hincha for your inspiring dedication to the vision of an inclusive sport and social club, to the pibes in the peñas of Salta and Matadores del Oeste, to the Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, and to the residents of Boedo. I hope my retelling of your stories is worthy of their value. To Peter Gose, you are a kind and patient mentor. Thank you for excitedly pulling ethnographies on British football supporters from your bookshelf when I mused about embarking on a new research project. Your confidence in this project from the very beginning reflects your passion for finding inspiration in the everyday lives and actions of others, a trait I hope to carry forward. To Bernhard Leistle, thank you for teaching me new ways to think about human experience and to better pay attention to my senses. This self-awareness has made me a better hincha and hopefully a better academic. To Jill Wigle, you have been attentive, flexible, supportive, and intellectually stimulating during every step of this project. Thank you for encouraging me to be multi-disciplined academic and be more critical of my own gendered perspective. The administrative staff of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Institute of Political Economy at Carleton University have done so much to bring this project to its conclusion. Thank you Paula Whissell and Marlene Brancato for all of your dedicated work to help students. Donna Coghill, you are a life-long friend. Thank you to Silvio Aragón for our conversations about fútbol, hinchadas, and politics. And, thank you to Cristina Rojas and Laura Macdonald for your unending support for students at Carleton who conduct research in and about Latin America. ii Thank you to Robbie “Titus” for opening your home to me, Rachel Lambrecht for being my first guide to San Lorenzo, Dani “Fletero” for the late-night asados and concerts, and Mariana Marcote por apoyo y amistad siempre. My colleagues and friends in Ottawa have supported me intellectually and very importantly with their care during this project. In particular I want to thank Andrea Carrión, Alex Castleton, Rachel Crawford, Vladimir Díaz, Mariana Fernandez, Kirsten Francescone, Aaron and Lucy Henry, David Matijasevich, Nozomi Otsuka, Daniel Tubb, Marieka Sax, Kendra and Ryan Shannon, and Amy Wilson. To my whole family, thank you for all of your support and love. To my brothers Michael Black and David Hawkins, you guys are an inspiration for me and true friends in life. I am deeply grateful to my parents Stephen Hawkins and Hilda Michel for everything they have given me, most relevant but probably least significant is their desire to see this project finished. I try my best to be the curious and compassionate person you have guided me to be. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... iv Maps ...........................................................................................................................vi Chapter 1 Introduction ...............................................................................................1 1.1 Football Crowds as Philosophical Events ...................................................9 1.2 Hincha, Hinchada, Barra Brava and Barrio ............................................ 20 1.3 Research Methodology of Becoming a Hincha ........................................25 1.4 The People and the Sites of Research ....................................................... 36 1.5 Thematic Concepts: Narrative and Memory .............................................45 1.6 Thematic Concepts: Emotions in the Crowd ............................................51 1.7 Thematic Concepts: Space and Place in the Urban Landscape ................55 1.8 Structure of the Dissertation ..................................................................... 60 Chapter 2 Historical Dimensions of San Lorenzo ..................................................67 2.1 Football in Argentina ................................................................................ 69 2.2 Football on the Streets and the Formation of San Lorenzo de Almagro ...73 2.3 Football as Mass Spectacle ....................................................................... 88 2.4 Nationalism in Football Criollo, the Potrero, and the Pibe ......................91 2.5 From Football’s Professionalization to Peronism .....................................99 2.6 San Lorenzo during Peronism and the Dirty War to the Present ............106 2.7 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 116 Chapter 3 The Barrio of Boedo in Buenos Aires .................................................. 119 3.1 Contemporary Boedo ..............................................................................123 3.2 Buenos Aires, Urban Form, and Place within the City ...........................126 3.3 The Barrio Porteño .................................................................................134 3.4 Boedo and the Historic Cultural Practices of a Barrio ...........................140 3.5 Club de barrio and its Historical Formation ...........................................146 3.6 Nostalgia and the Barrio ......................................................................... 154 3.7 Boedo a Barrio of Murga and Carnival .................................................. 157 3.8 The Barrio as Home ................................................................................163 3.9 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 169 Chapter 4 Passion and Suffering in the Stadium .................................................171 4.1 The Stadium as Space and