A LINE IN THE SAND RACE, PURITY AND COMFORT IN ARGENTINE GATED COMMUNITIES By Ricardo Greene A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Goldsmiths College University of London 20 20 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of Goldsmiths College is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. 1 ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on a gated community in contemporary Argentina, paying attention to the lifestyles, rhythms and practices of their actors. Since 1990 gated urban complexes have emerged on the outskirts of Argentine cities, radically modifying established forms of land occupation, and constituting one of the most significant territorial processes of the past decades. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nordelta, Argentina’s largest and most self-sufficient of these compounds, this research proposes that gated communities cannot be solely explained as the result of spatial fragmentation due to class difference, or as a consequence of neoliberal processes of privatization and deregulation. Rather, it suggests they are above all the latest iteration of particular class and racial relationships already deeply embedded in the fabric of Argentine society. At the same time, in contrast to representations of these complexes as secluded, isolated and indifferent to their surroundings, the data generated through ethnographic research illustrate Nordelta’s creative, productive and blurred borders, that are crossed on a daily basis by thousands of people, objects, languages and information. Their circulation is internally perceived as a threat to its purity and sovereignty, and to the project which gave rise to it. Consequently, a series of power mechanisms and technologies are deployed to reject, transform and/or normalise foreign bodies and all that is associated with them. Lastly, the thesis proposes that gated communities are primarily motivated and guided by a particular discourse of truth, based on an ethics of comfort, which entails forms of conduct and self-discipline that seek to avoid stressful and potentially dangerous experiences, such as those arising from inter-class encounters. At the same time, a shared ethos promotes practices that are construed as positive steps towards well-being in relation to the individual, and to the private and domestic spheres (family, body, mind and soul). 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Abstract 4 Table of contents 6 List of Figures 8 Acronyms 9 Key Spanish words 12 Acknowledgments 1 14 INTRODUCTION 20 Case Study: Nordelta 27 Methods report 40 Key concepts 51 Thesis outline 2 55 ARGENTINE NATION-BUILDING PROCESS: RACE, POWER AND IDENTITY 58 Forging the country: How nationhood was produced 73 The city and the desert, civilisation and barbarism 78 Territorial transformations of the Buenos Aires Province 93 2001: The year Buenos Aires was occupied 3 102 THE CONQUEST OF THE SUBURBS 103 The new desert 114 A place of their own 127 To exclude and protect 140 Outsiders: A looming menace 145 Concluding remarks 3 4 147 TRACING A LINE IN THE SAND 148 Fence me in 169 One gate to rule them all 184 Private justice 200 Concluding remarks: The Bogado case 5 202 PURIFICATION AT THE PEARLY GATES 203 At the bus stop 231 At the gates 245 Concluding remarks 6 246 MANUFACTURING NORDELTEÑOS: FORMAL MECHANISMS 252 The book of rules 262 Spatial design: a calculated dissymmetry 268 Concluding remarks 7 270 MANUFACTURING NORDELTEÑOS: INFORMAL MECHANISMS 276 Identity building 289 Peer pressure 297 Of Stowaways 301 Concluding remarks 306 CONCLUSIONS THE WILL TO ENJOY: A NEW ETHIC OF COMFORT 311 Appendix 1 314 Bibliography 4 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1.1. Nordelta in relation to Buenos Aires Capital City Fig. 1.2. Nordelta’s urbanisation process Fig. 1.3. Map of Nordelta’s Commercial Area Fig. 1.4. Nordelta’s subdivision in 24 barrios Fig. 1.5. Nordelta’s surroundings: key spots Fig. 1.6. The section of La Troncal that has a pedestrian lane Fig. 1.7. Burgess Concentric Zone Model and Dear and Flusty’s Model of postmodern urban structure Fig. 1.8. Paraisópolis and Morumbi neighbourhoods. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fig. 2.1. Alsina’s Trench Fig. 2.2. Painting: Migrants arriving at Buenos Aires Fig. 2.3: Painting: El malón Fig. 2.4. Frontispiece for Humbolt’s Atlas géographique et physique du Nouveau Continent Fig. 2.5. Map of Buenos Aires Province Fig. 2.6. The second independence Fig. 2.7. People freshening up at Plaza de Mayo Fountain Fig. 2.8. Results for «Buenos Aires 2001» searched in google images Fig. 2.9. Mafalda Fig. 3.1. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 3.2. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 3.3. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 3.4. General Pacheco City Fig. 3.5. Map of Nordelta’s accesses Fig. 3.6. The city of Tigre Fig. 3.7. The city of Tigre Fig. 3.8. Magnets on a fridge Fig. 3.9. Nordelta’s commercial area Fig. 3.10. Nordelta’s commercial area Fig. 3.11. A condom Fig. 3.12. Image retrieved from Twitter Fig. 3.13. Image retrieved from Twitter Fig. 3.14. Nordelta’s commercial area Fig. 3.15. Guards and sentry stall Fig. 3.16. Protests at the bus stop Fig. 3.17. Guard approaching Fig. 3.18. Guards taking my photo Fig. 3.19. Police officer Fig. 3.20. Los Roldán arriving at an upper class neighbourhood Fig. 4.1. Nordelta’s first sketch Fig. 4.2. Nordelta’s first approved Masterplan Fig. 4.3. Nordelta’s current Masterplan Fig 4.4. General Pacheco’s main roads Fig 4.5. Detailed image of Corredor Nordelta-Bancalari 5 Fig. 4.6. Cartoon about private roads Fig. 4.7 Corredor Nordelta-Bancalari Fig. 4.8. Municipal billboard Fig. 4.9. Sarmiento Road Fig. 4.10. Garbage truck being followed by a guard Fig. 4.11. ARBA ads Fig. 4.12. Noticias magazine Fig. 4.13. Non-verbal transit signs Fig. 4.14. Radar installed on the Troncal Fig. 4.15. Crimes on the news Fig. 5.1. Map of Pacheco Bus Stop area Fig. 5.2. Highway over the bus stop Fig. 5.3. Security stall Fig. 5.4. Domestic workers waiting at the stop Fig. 5.5. Nordelta’s Transportation network Fig. 5.6. Two domestic workers and a propietario waiting for the bus Fig. 5.7. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 5.8. Digital letter Fig. 5.9. Male workers waiting for the bus Fig. 5.10. Male workers horseplay Fig. 5.11. Male workers waiting for the bus Fig. 5.12. Barrancas del Lago and schools area. Fig. 5.13. Builders Fig. 5.14. Hiring job ad posted at the bus stop Fig. 5.15. The bus stop floor Fig. 5.16. Northern gate. Fig. 5.17. Guard examining a car’s trunk Fig. 5.18. Leaflet: Instructions for visitors Fig. 6.1. Chevrolet ad Fig. 6.2. A new barrio under construction Fig. 6.3. Barrios Fig. 6.4. A house in La Isla Fig. 7.1. Nordelta’s motto Fig. 7.2. Stills from Nordelta’s Institutional Video Fig. 7.3 Nordelta’s flag Fig. 7.4. Inside Nordelta: lake and house Fig. 7.5. Inside Nordelta: internal road Fig. 7.6. Well-being ads Fig. 7.7. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 7.8. Image retrieved from twitter Fig. 7.9. Painting: The expulsion from Paradise 6 ACRONYMS AFIP Administradora Federal de Ingresos Públicos | Federal Administrator of Public Funds ARBA Agencia de Recaudación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires | Buenos Aires Province Collection Agency AVN Asociación Vecinal Nordelta | Nordelta’s Neighbours Association CABA Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires | Buenos Aires Autonomous City CECNOR Centro Comercial Nordelta | Nordelta’s Shopping Centre. A business partnership composed by Grupo Desarrollista (80%) and Nordelta S.A. (20%), created to build and administrate Nordelta's commercial area. CVN Consejo Vecinal Nordelta | Nordelta’s Neighbour’s Council CEPAL Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe | ECLAC - UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean INDEC Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos | National Institute of Statistics and Censuses GBA Gran Buenos Aires | Great Buenos Aires. Metropolitan area composed of 24 partidos of Buenos Aires Province plus Buenos Aires Capital City. ND Nordelta PRN Proceso de Re-Organización Nacional | PNR - Process of National Re- Organisation 7 KEY SPANISH WORDS Bonaerense Gentilic for people from Buenos Aires Province. Barrio Generally equivalent to “neighbourhood”. When used in Nordelta, it refers to one of the 24 gated communities that compose the project. Cabecita negra [Little black head] Derogatory term used by elites and middle classes to talk about dark-skinned and lower class people. Capital Federal A.k.a. CABA or Buenos Aires. Argentina’s capital city, an autonomous district. Cartoneros [Cardboard people] People in a precarious situation who make their living by collecting and recycling materials from the streets. Cheto / Concheto A pejorative way of referring to rich people. Ciudad-Pueblo [City-Town] Nordelta’s nickname. Consultatio S.A. Argentine corporation owned by Eduardo Costantini, one of Nordelta’s two main partners. Conurbano 24 of the 135 partidos composing Buenos Aires Province. Countries Native name for gated communities in Argentina.