Mundo Villa: Informal Settlements and Marginalization in Argentine Film
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Mundo Villa: Informal Settlements and Marginalization in Argentine Film Alan Smyth Thesis Supervisor: Dr Catherine Leen Head of School: Professor Arnd Witte Submitted to the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Maynooth University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a PhD in Spanish and Latin American Studies July 2018 Contents Abstract 5 Acknowledgements 6 Thesis Introduction i. Argentina’s Villas 8 ii. Overview: Critical Framework, Literature Review, Methodology, Objectives and Outline of Chapters 9 Chapter One: Populating, Governing and Eradicating Villas 1.1 Introduction 22 1.2 Origins of the Villas 22 1.3 To Dictate is to Eradicate 25 1.4 The City and the Undeserving 27 1.5 Recovering Democracy and Repopulating Villas 31 Chapter Two: Villas and the Evolution of Argentine Cinema 2.1 Introduction 36 2.2 Accessing and Stereotyping Villas 37 2.3 From the arrabal to the Villa: Poverty and Precarious Housing in Early Argentine Films (1922 – 1950) 41 2.4 Retrospective Representations?: Poverty under ‘Paternal’ Control (1950 – 1954) 48 2.5 Back to the Present: From Anti-Peronism to Political Disenchantment (1958 – 1962) 54 2.6 The Wrong Track: Examining Development and Foreshadowing Authoritarianism in Documentaries and Docudramas of the New Argentine Cinema (1960 – 1965) 64 2.7 Evolving Images of Poverty and Informal Settlements in Third Cinema: La hora de los hornos (dirs. Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, 1968) 74 2.8 Disappearing Poverty (1974 – 1980) 79 2.9 Conclusion 83 2 Chapter Three: Capitalism, Crisis and Villas in Post-Dictatorship Productions 3.1 Introduction 86 3.1.1 Marginalizing Villas in Early Post-Dictatorship Films (1984 – 1989) 86 3.1.2 The Conquest of the Villa: Recentralizing Villera/os (1988 – 1989) 88 3.1.3 Escape to New York: Pre-Crisis Poverty (1989 – 1997) 90 3.1.4 New Argentine Fears: Screening Capitalism in Crisis (1998 – 2011) 93 3.2 Between Marx and Menem: Alienating the Hidden Cities 103 3.3 Concrete Realities: God and Christianity in the Villa 111 3.4 Marketing Addiction: Drugs and Villas 116 3.5 International, Interracial and Interclass Relationships 119 3.6 Conclusion 121 Chapter Four: Overcoming the Exhibition Crisis: Villas and Marginalization in Transnational Co-Productions 4.1 Introduction: 124 4.2 The Glocal in Argentine Co-productions about Poverty 127 4.2.1 Funding and Production 127 4.2.2 Glocal Themes 129 4.2.3 The Mise-en-Scène as the Message: Technical Aspects 137 4.3 Building the Transnational Villa 141 4.4 Aligning the Stars and Casting Aside the Marginal Other 144 4.5 Conclusion 150 Chapter Five: Gendering Poverty and Countering the Male-Centred Fashion of Violence in Films about Villas 5.1 Introduction 153 5.2 Guido Models: Fashioning Agency, Remodelling Femininity? 156 5.3 Mía: Transgendering Poverty 167 5.4 Conclusion 174 Chapter Six: Villera/o Cinema: Transforming the Mainstream? 6.1 Introduction 179 6.2 Early Villera/o Cinema 181 6.3 Contemporary Villera/o Cinema: Mimicking the Mainstream? 183 6.4 Securing Insecurity as the Thematic Status Quo 187 6.5 Criminal-Victim Hybrids: Subversive Stereotypes or Ambivalent Prejudices? 190 3 6.6 Challenging the Culture of Poverty and Defining the Deserving Poor 195 6.7 Reaching for Stardom 199 6.7.1 Julio Arrieta: Cultural Middleman? 199 6.7.2 Aliens versus Villera/os: A Welcome Attack 203 6.8 Conclusion 211 Thesis Conclusion: The Trouble with Keeping Face: A Call for Diversity and Sites of Commonality in Films about Villas 214 References 221 Filmography 283 4 Abstract Argentina’s informal settlements, commonly referred to as villas, are home to over 2 million people who are severely marginalized in Argentine society. This thesis begins by mapping the history of villas and the volatile relationship between their inhabitants and the state. It then examines the evolution of the representation of villas in an increasingly globalised film industry, showing how images of violence, drugs, prostitution and other forms of crime in these neighbourhoods have been appropriated and reappropriated to defend or denounce different governments, ideologies and regimes. Particular attention is paid to conflicting portrayals of villa inhabitants who are marginalized not only because of their socioeconomic status, but also because of their gender. These portrayals are reflective of a society that is simultaneously liberal and oppressive. Lastly, the thesis analyses the ways in which filmmakers from informal settlements respond to stigmatization and attempt to create a new vantage point from which audiences can view the crimes committed by villa residents as manifestations of their oppression and economic marginalization. Significantly, these marginal films often re-employ the images of gangs, drugs and violence seen in the mainstream. Using postcolonial theory as a framework for analysis, this research questions whether this mode of self-representation mimics damaging stereotypes and reinforces social fragmentation or rewrites the standard narrative to create a new understanding of poverty and dismantle the barriers between the villas and the rest of Argentine society. It concludes that, even though marginal cinema is often subversive in its approach, by continuing to define villa communities by their relationship to certain forms of crime, it has yet to capture the diversity within marginalized spaces and the complexity of poverty in Argentina. Signs of progression are also highlighted, however, in a discussion about filmmakers who have re-imagined their villas through the science-fiction genre. These filmmakers have empowered the economically marginalized by transforming them from victims into heroic characters, thereby establishing a new model for marginal filmmakers in Argentina and beyond. 5 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been a fulfilling and enlightening experience made possible by the support of many people. Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Catherine Leen for her guidance. I have benefited greatly from Dr Leen’s expertise and encouragement since my time as an undergraduate student at Maynooth University. Without her mentorship, I would not have been able to carry out this research. I would also like to thank Professor Arnd Witte for the confidence that he placed in me as a postgraduate student. I am further indebted to other past and present members of staff at Maynooth University, whose advice and support helped me to progress academically and professionally: Dr David Barnwell, Dr Mercedes Carbayo-Abengózar, Dr David Conlon, Ms Kate Crofton, Ms Antonia Flores, Ms Crea Lambert, Ms Anna Laribal, Ms Soila López Tynan, Ms María Lujan Medina, Ms Sonia Nuñez Cortés, Dr Catherine O’Leary, Dr Deirdre Quinn, Dr María Belén Rabadán Vega, Ms Laoise Sutton, Dr Gavan Titley, Dr Mirna Vohnsen and Dr Daniel de Zubía-Fernández. I am extremely privileged to have received funding for this research. I am grateful to Maynooth University, particularly the Graduate Studies Office, for providing a Hume Scholarship and first-class academic support thereafter. I would also like to thank the National University of Ireland for the Denis Phelan Scholarship, which allowed me to become a more informed researcher by carrying out fieldwork in Argentina. A postgraduate scholarship from the Irish Research Council also made this study possible. I would not have been able to enter a doctoral programme without financial support. Therefore, I am very appreciative of the opportunities that these organizations have given to me. I must also acknowledge those who helped me during my research trips. Pablo Vitale and Fernando Musa improved my knowledge of Argentine culture and society by kindly sharing their work, stories and experiences with me. The staff at the Mariano Moreno National Library in Buenos Aires and the British Film Institute in London provided excellent assistance in finding materials. I am thankful to everyone at the VOS Institute in Buenos Aires for enabling me to achieve a DELE qualification while completing my PhD. I remember with great fondness, the warm welcome that I received at film screenings held in Villa 21 by Erika Arrieta and her family, who I am now happy to call friends. My time in Argentina was made most enjoyable by everyone at Détras de Todo in Villa 31. The wonderful staff, volunteers and students at this school accepted me as one of their own and inspired me with their generosity, compassion, work ethic and resilience. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my mother Brenda; father Cathal; siblings David, Cathal and Elaine; grandfather Gerry; and late grandmother Eilish for their unwavering support before and during my (seemingly infinite!) student years. This thesis was also made possible by 6 the unparalleled warmth and hospitality of my Argentine family: Raquel, Raúl, Pablo, Matías, Liam, Luly and Lennon – gracias! Lastly, I would like to thank my partner Laura, whose love, sacrifices, sense of humour and Spanish lessons over the past decade have enriched my life in a manner that is impossible to put into words in any language. 7 Thesis Introduction i. Argentina’s Villas In Planet of the Slums, the Marxist scholar Mike Davis gives an unsettling, yet eloquently written, account of the continuing exponential growth of urban poverty around the world. Davis draws on literature published by the United Nations (U.N.) to define the ‘slums’ where this poverty is manifest as being ‘characterized by overcrowding, poor or informal housing, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, and insecurity of tenure’ (Davis 2006: 23). According to the author, the process of ‘urbanization without industrialization’ behind the expansion of so-called slums is driven by the social inequalities created by neoliberal capitalism (Davis 2006: 14). The spaces discussed by Davis exist all over Latin America. Informal settlements can be found throughout the region. Brazil has its favelas, Chile its callampas, Colombia its comunas, Mexico its ciudades perdidas and Peru its pueblos jovenes or barriadas.