As she stepped out of the white limo onto the red carpet, strobe lights flashing across the Puerto Madero sky, her guests craned their necks to get a peek of the dress. Escorted by her father, arm in arm, she entered with the guests following. Everyone sat down as the six violinists on stage waited for the cue, and once the girl and her father were in position, they struck up the waltz.

After came the lighting ceremony. Fifteen candles, each representing a year of her life, are lit by a different family member or friend, who simultaneously reads out a small declaration, something that is personal for the special day. As is tradition, the birthday girl then danced with every man in the room until the sun rose.

“That was the first time I had seen a limo,” Cecilia Cartoceti recalls as she describes the most impressive party she has ever attended. Although sounding like a passage from a Jane Austen novel, it is an event which happens everyday across the city. Sold as a girl’s passage from childhood to womanhood – the 15th birthday party.

‘Fiesta de Quince’, a Historical Tradition

Although the exact origins are disputed, the 15th birthday celebration is generally believed to be a cultural infusion from when the Spanish Conquistadors settled in Latin America and assimilated Spanish and indigenous cultures.

The tradition of presenting women at an age they are considered an adult reached across the continent, with evidence of ceremonies in Mayan, Aztec, Incan and Chimú cultures. The ceremony evolved in Post-Colombian America, where the conquistadors’ tactic to impose Catholicism on indigenous customs transformed what was a simple ceremony into a religious occasion, traditionally starting with mass in a church.

A girl tries on a dress at 'Fantasy' in Once. (Photo: Trillia Fidel-Bagwell)

In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the ceremony is performed with greater religious overtones. Here, in Argentina, it is not nearly as connected; they seldom start at the church, and it is more about the party than the deity.

“Here, the 15th birthday party is still a turning point. Once you are 15 you get to go to dances and other more ‘adult’ things – the symbolism is connected with that,” Cecilia agrees that the celebration continues to be about a girl becoming a woman.

Yet despite enjoying her friends’ parties, she made the controversial decision not to have one. “I know that historically, when a girl turned 15 she was supposed to get married, so the party was basically a high society way of presenting girls to eligible males. Nowadays, I don’t know why they do it.”

Women or Girls?

The perception of our own standing in life can be very subjective. Whilst there is a youthful eagerness to be taken seriously and to do the things that Cecilia, and others, consider ‘adult’, there is little doubt that the concepts of youth and adulthood are very fluid and historically subject to changes.

As sociologist Juan Martín Bustos explains in a recent article on the subject, published by Le Monde Diplomatique, “the idea of youth makes sense when compared to that of adulthood, a state which, from the mid-20th century onwards, is related to forming a nuclear family and accessing the paid labour market.” This model, according to Bustos, is part of a three-stage scheme under which life is divided: childhood and youth (as preparation for the ‘active life’ of adulthood), adulthood, and finally old age.

Today, the Argentine statistics office, INDEC, considers young people to those between the ages of 15 and 29, that is 10 million people, or about 25%, of the country’s population. This very broad group is in turn divided into further, more specific categories. For the group of ‘adolescent youth’ (15-19), none of the objective indicators of adulthood are significant: three in four study, whilst only one in five work. In legal terms, people do not gain the full rights of an adult until they turn 18. Only 1% of urban 15-year olds are married, so it is unlikely that many 15-year-old girls nowadays would be throwing a party to attract potential husbands as they did back in colonial times.

If the trend is for adulthood to be delayed until well into our thirties and turning 15 does not mark any visible change in a teenager’s life, then how much meaning is there left in the tradition, especially in more secular societies like Argentina’s?

The Business of Being Accepted

As with many other celebrations that fill up our calendars, it can be argued that the 15th birthday party has evolved into little more than a marketing ploy to extract large amounts of money from children, and their parents, or risk social ostracism.

Not all of them fall for it, though. “I find nowadays that [15th birthday parties have] more to do with advertising. A big fuss is made because now it’s a big industry, a really big industry – some parties are bigger than weddings,” Cecilia points out.

And it is a huge industry, indeed. There are businesses that handle every single aspect. Dressmakers, event organisers, travel agencies, photographers, make-up artists, magazines, entertainment, even a telenovela. It is an industry that endures the economic climate too, no matter what is going on with the country, there are always girls turning 15 and they want their parties.

The pressure of the 15th can drive the girls and their families to problems, some girls become so stressed that they can suffer from eating disorders. Other families cannot afford the extravagant parties and struggle to keep up with it all.

Agustina Oswald, who turned 15 last year, remembers how she had to start saving for her party when she was 9. “Some parties are really expensive. My mother and I had to do a lot of work to save for my party. People could see how much effort we put in, especially as there were only two of us. My mum still wanted me to have a party with all the things I love. We had a total of 180 guests, so we didn’t have the best place, and we couldn’t hire a photographer.” Yet she still spent around US$4,500 on the day (the dress alone can cost between US$150-US$1000). Probably not even a fraction of the cost of the Puerto Madero extravaganza Cecilia attended, but a massive amount of money nonetheless.

That, it seems, is the price teenage girls have to pay to ‘belong’. At such an impressionable age, not all of them can resist the temptation to pay thousands of dollars in order to assert their identity, and their insecurities are mercilessly exploited by a hungry industry that pushes them to spend more and more to stand out, and at the same time, to fit in.

Now in it’s 14th year, Instituto Multimedia DerHumALC’s (IMD) International Human Rights Film Festival has brought films focusing on human rights and environmental issues from all corners of the globe to Buenos Aires.

Still from Australian film 'Abendland'

The festival is putting on a mixture of short, medium and long documentary and fiction films, consistently focused on global human rights – a subject that occupies the consciousness of Latin Americans and Argentines due to a far too recent heritage of dictatorships, civil wars and social movements. It therefore makes it fitting for this consciousness to be embodied in the film festival’s theme this year: Identity.

“We chose the issue of Identity because we see it, metaphorically speaking, as a tree deeply rooted in the past to bloom in the actions and choices of the present,” explains IMC festival director, Florencia Santucho.

“Just like the branches and leaves turn towards the sun in search of vital energy, each person needs their identity to freely develop their potential and choose their own path.”

The Greek documentary The Argentina Experiment, one of the films running for the festival’s Feature Films Official Competition, illustrates this mentality by investigating how identity can be derived from the development of present decisions from the actions of the past. It follows Greek director Yorgos Avgeropoulos’s return to Argentina ten years after the economic crisis to see if Greece can learn fiscally from Argentina’s example.

Although constantly framed by the theme of identity, the festival branches off into many sub-topics covering a diverse range of issues, both international and national – from the environment, native peoples, childhood and youth, to migrants and gender views. The festival casts a wide scope, showing films on Colombia, on the Middle East, the Arab Spring, while also opening the ‘window’ to controversial political movements in Venezuela and Cuba.

Films competing in the Feature Films Contest include the Austrian documentary Abendland (meaning ‘evening land’ in German), a critical commentary on the Europe’s addiction to technology and security, and the influence of the Western world. In Acorzado, a Mexican fictional entry, the protagonist decides to make a raft from his neglected taxi and sail off for a better life in the USA, only to find himself in Cuba. The British documentary Cocaine Unwrapped on the other-hand offers a start to finish look at the cocaine trade and asks some important questions about the way governments are fighting back against the industry.

Each film in the festival teaches the viewer lessons on the way we look at life – from Journey to Portugal’s questioning of border control’s treatment of people, to the Canadian short documentary, Keepers of the Water, chronicling the plight of group of children protesting about environmental crime.

Putos Peronistas, Cumbia de un Sentimiento is in competition this year.

This year’s festival also sees the addition of the National Film Contest category, which focuses on homegrown talent. Drawing on the central theme of identity, Sin Punto y Aparte (No Full Stop) follows its director’s return to Argentina after fleeing to Israel during the military dictatorship, and discovering the role of Judaism in modern day Argentina. Putos Peronistas, Cumbia de un Sentimiento (The Peronist Fags, Cumbia Feeling) tells the fascinating story of a revolutionary political group of Peronist homosexuals in a district of Buenos Aires. Also catch the woman’s prison based Captive Moons, and the documentary Jopoi, All Together, on the legacy of Paraguayan indigenous language.

As festival director Florencia Santucho explains, each film corresponds to a “social memory [which] is deeply rooted to the identity of all communities where each and everyone knows who he or she is in view of the sum of past experiences, present commitments and future objectives.”

Through others’ exploration of identity the festival tries to make the viewer question their own perceptions, asking, “how much does the judgement of others influence our perception of ourselves?” The theme of Identity isn’t just there to tie the films together neatly; it’s also a recommendation on how to view these films.

All films are showing in ten venues across the city from the 23^rd to the 30^th May. For more information see the IMD festival’s website for the programme.

It is the 10th anniversary of the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina and we managed to get some of the best books and documentaries gathered in this financial crisis material round up to make you an expert on the subject. Check it out!

Documentaries:

‘Memoria del saqueo’

This documentary creates a timeline between the military dictatorship of 1976 until the beginning of the protesting in December 2001.

It reports 25 years of economic, financial and social problems because of the countries exorbitant debt as well political and financial corruption in government sectors.

This documentary is a complaint of the plundering of resources by multinational corporations with the complicity of the national government.

According to the director Pino Solanas, little has changed in Argentina since 2003: “the looting goes on.”

Director: Pino Solanas. Countries: Argentina/France/ Switzerland. Duration: 120 minutes. Year: 2004. Language: English and Spanish

‘The Take’

In the beginning of the Argentine economic collapse of 2001, former employees of the newly shut Forja plant in a suburban area of Buenos Aires, take over the factory as a part of a new movement that encourages workers to occupy bankrupt businesses to create jobs in an attempt to recuperate their means of living.

Locking themselves inside and with no bosses, 30 former auto-parts workers start running the once silenced factory and refuse to leave.

This act has the power to shake the basis of the whole globalization debate.

The president of the new worker’s co-operative, Freddy, and the head of the Movement of Recovered Companies, Lalo, know that their struggle is only beginning. Having to face a bureaucratic rampage amongst going to courts, dealing with cops and politicians, they know their success is far from secure. Their future is uncertain: they can either be granted legal protection or be evicted from the factory.

The presidential elections sets the background, having Carlos Menem – known as the main responsible for the crisis – as the front-runner. Menem’s supporters are the factory owners, who will get the factories back from the workers if their candidate wins.

Now the workers have to fight their bosses, the bankers and the whole economic system that do not really care about all the lives they affect by shutting down plants.

Directors: Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein. Country: Argentina/ Canada. Duration: 87 minutes. Year: 2004. Language: English and Spanish

‘The Argentina Experiment’

Greek documentary film maker Yorgos Avgeropoulos was living and working in Argentina between 2001 and 2002, during the crisis. He now returns to the country to re-examine the economic, political and social situation of Argentina and how it is handling the consequences of the collapse it faced ten years ago.

The documentary creates a parallel of what happened in December 2001 and what is happening now in Argentina ten years later.

According to the documentary, the ending of the neoliberal economic model in Argentine economic calamity of 2001 left 39 people dead – murdered by the police and bank securities – 30,000 collateral damages (suicides, heart attacks and strokes) and over 50% of the population submerged in poverty and misery.

Director: Yorgos Avgeropoulos. Country: Argentina. Duration: 100 minutes. Year: 2010-2011. Language: English, Spanish and Greek

Books:

‘Broken Promises? – The Argentine Crisis and Argentine Democracy’

Editors Edward Epstein and David Pion-Berlin have brought together an impressive group of Argentine and American experts to contribute to in this book. This is considered to be the first comprehensive account of the 2001 Argentine economic collapse.

The book shows insights of the role of the police and the military, as well as the analysis of the behaviour of the population and politicians as the economic crisis develops.

It also portrays the Argentina emerging from the crisis and the complexities of contemporary Argentine democracy.

Editors: Edward Epstein and David Pion-Berlin, 296 pages. Publisher: Lexington Books. First edition: March 2008. Language: English

‘History of The Argentine Crisis’

According to author Mauricio Rojas, “there are countries which are rich and countries which are poor. And there are poor countries, which are growing rich. And there is Argentina.”

Rojas’ book explains in a summary the journey and the reasons that lead Argentina to its economic and financial crisis in 2001. The text is written in a simple and accessible manner, perfect for the lay in Argentine politics or the ones that want to understand the crisis but not in depth.

Explaining the Argentine golden age between 1860 and 1930, which the country growth increased astonishingly, there came 70 years of stagnation as well as political, economical and especially social issues.

It sets the scene for the beginning of the 20^th century, when the country was richer than France, Italy and Sweden and its long and hard fall into bankruptcy.

The book also talks about the Perón years and its importance to Argentina, besides all the corruption, populism, nationalism and protectionism.

After years of inflation, aborted reforms, regional conflicts and political scandals, the country finds itself in a delicate political and financial situation.

Originally published in Swedish and later translated to English, Spanish and Portuguese, this book is highly recommended if you want to read a short but profound text to understand how such a powerful and country fell into financial failure.

Author: Mauricio Rojas, 130 pages. Publisher Cadal / Timbro. First edition: December 2003. Language: English, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese

‘The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism’

Author Paul H. Lewis begins his book describing the development of the Argentine industry, emphasizing the period after World War II, in which Argentina had become the most industrialized nation in Latin America.

Lewis considered Perón and his military colleagues responsible for the end of the evolution of Argentine economy aiming dynamic capitalism.

He also describes the political disputes amongst peronists and anti-peronists between the years of 1955 to 1987 and points out how the post-Perón governments failed to incorporate the trade union movement in their list of priorities, causing – amongst other things – economic stagnation and an increase on the levels of violence.

This book is ideal for people who want a deep study on the roots of the Argentine instability and decline in the times before the crisis – or how Lewis calls “the politics of political stagnation” -, as it describes Argentina’s entrepreneurial classes in relation to foreign capital, labour, the government and the military.

It also differs from previous studies because it does not focus on parties or governmental institutions, but in pressure groups and their organization, development and political activities.

Author: Paul H. Lewis. 594 pages, Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press. First edition: February 1992. Language: English

‘And the money came rolling in (and out)’

Author Paul Blustein managed to expose in his book the flaws of the financial system worldwide and shows Argentina’s efforts in the 90s to become one of the developed countries – even being praised by the IMF, the World Bank and Wall Street.

Blustein – who also wrote a book about the IMF called “The Chastening”- gathered in “And the money came rolling in (and out)” hundreds of interviews with politicians, economists, stock market investors as well as parts of internal documents showing how the IMF ignored the vulnerabilities in the Argentine economic policy.

The narrative of the rise and fall of Argentine economy is very clear and makes the reading flow, being considered by many top publications such as The Economist and New York Sun to be a “page-turner”.

Author: Paul Blumstein. 304 pages, Publisher: PublicAffairs. First Edition: March 2005. Language: English

As the ash cloud from the eruption of the Chilean volcano Puyehue approaches Buenos Aires, airlines have cancelled international flights to and from Ezeiza Airport.

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) announced that the ash cloud, which has already reached ten Argentine provinces and the southern region of Greater Buenos Aires, will arrive in the capital today. The SMN added that the ash cloud’s proximity to Buenos Aires is no cause for alarm; much of the ash dispersed as the cloud passed through the South and will be “barely noticeable” in the capital. The ash is suspended at an altitude of five to ten thousand meters.

Still, in addition to the six airports that remain closed of the capital (Bariloche, Viedma, Trelew, Chapelco, Esquel and Bahía Blanca), Ezeiza remains on hold. Last night more than six airlines cancelled incoming flights to Ezeiza (including Delta, LAN, and United Airlines), and a crisis committee has gathered to determine when it will be safe to clear international departures for the airlines that plan to resume flights later this evening.

After shutting down this morning, domestic airport Aeroparque resumed service this afternoon.

Airports closer to the volcano, which is located 90km northeast of Bariloche, will remain closed for the rest of the week. State-owned airlines Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral suspended flights between Aeroparque and Bariloche and between Chapelco and Esquel until Sunday. Flights from Aeroparque to Trelew, Neuquén, and Videma will resume on Thursday.

Four thousand residents have evacuated their homes since the eruption on Saturday afternoon, escaping strong rains, soot, and flash floods. Patagonia was affected most severely by the cloud. Classes and public events have been cancelled in Bariloche, and ash fell over the region at mid-day.

No fatalities have been reported as caused by the volcano.

Photo by Susannah Bothe

Bearded, battle-scarred and bolshie, Raúl Castells is chalk to his presidential rival Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s cheese. She is the wife of president Néstor Kirchner; he was imprisoned by him. She is manicured, coiffed and made-up like a TV star; when we meet, he is scruffy and casual in jeans and a poncho.

Castells has been one of Argentina’s major socialist protestors – known here as piqueteros – for decades, a thorn in the side of numerous successive presidents. Now, in 2007, he’s running for the top job himself. 

Two weeks out from the elections, he managed to fit The Argentina Independent into his busy schedule of media appearances.

Why did you decide to run for president?

To represent the most humble sectors of society in this country. I am part of an organisation called the Independent Movement for the Retired and Unemployed. In this country there are around five million pensioners, and 4.5 million unemployed people. We also fight for Argentina’s 2.5 million rural poor.

Our struggle is for an Argentina that is more just and equitable than the one we’re currently living in.

If you were elected on 28th October, what would your government do for Argentina?

The first step would be to nationalise gas, petroleum and mining. We are the only country in the world in which all the natural resources have been handed over to foreign owners. All of them – 100% of our petroleum, 100% of our gas, 100% of our mines, are all in the hands of foreign capitalists.

The second step would be to stop debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Last year, Argentina paid back US$10bn, and this year US$13.7bn – and yet still we owe them 160 billion dollars. We would suspend these payments on external debt and use this money to revitalise the Argentine economy, by increasing salaries and pensions and giving credit to small and medium producers in the countryside and the city.

Thirdly, we would nationalise our natural environmental resources. Fifty-two percent of Argentina is owned by 6,200 large landholders. The Italian company Benetton owns 800,000 hectares of our country, and US national Douglas Tompkins owns 370,000 hectares, including lakes and lagoons containing potable water. No one should be able to buy a lake! Selling off our mountains or waterfalls or natural reserves is unacceptable – we propose to nationalise all this.

Photo by Susannah Bothe

Are your politics influenced by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez or Bolivia’s Evo Morales?

Yes. We are proposing a process that would be similar to that implemented in Venezuela by Chávez in particular, but there are also parallels with Bolivia. We see them as anti-imperialist, nationalistic, progressive movements of the workers and the people. We would like to see something similar for our country.

If you’re not elected, what will you do to continue to the fight for the Argentine people?

We have been struggling for these things for years. We have been severely repressed by this government, and we reject them. We will continue the fight with popular mobilisation of workers and peasant farmers, whatever the results of the election.

Some have described you as an Argentine Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Do you see yourself like that?

The idea of Robin Hood is something more individual – we are a collective. But yes – we think that there does need to be a redistribution of wealth.

We don’t agree with the fact that in Argentina, 55 children under five die every day from malnutrition. We don’t agree with the fact that 17,000 people die every year from hunger in a country like ours – a global food producer! We are the fifth biggest food exporter in the world, and today, 55 children are going to die of hunger.

We don’t accept that people should be dying of malnutrition in our country. But we’re not planning to rob the rich – what we mean by popular mobilisation is that we must guarantee food access and survival for everyone. For example, right now a pensioner receives US$6 per day, but a kilo of tomatoes costs him US$5, a kilo of meat US$4. And there’s no relation between what people are earning and the prices of food – it doesn’t add up.

A year and a half ago you opened a soup kitchen in Buenos Aires’ richest suburb – Puerto Madero. Is it still in operation?

It is – but as a cultural and political centre, because three months ago the government banned us from serving food. The soup kitchen is just 100 metres from the government buildings and 150 metres from the Hilton Hotel. At the Hilton guests pay US$300 a night to stay there, and because President Kirchner doesn’t want them to have to look at poor people, he has forbidden us to make any more food.

Nina Pelozo, my co-leader in this movement, is to face trial on 16th October – yet all she did was to make a simple dish of guiso (a typical Argentine stew) and serve it free to people who had nothing else to eat.

Every weekend in the afternoons we still do activities there – but as of three months ago we are no longer allowed to serve food to poor people.

Why did you decide to open the soup kitchen there in Puerto Madero?

Because out of the three million people who live in the centre of Buenos Aires, 10,000 are homeless and live in the streets and the plazas. Some 150,000 live in impoverished shantytowns and another 70,000 live in crowded, substandard housing. There are many many poor people living alongside very rich people – in Puerto Madero there are 82 restaurants in a row where it costs something like US$100 for a meal. We think poor people too should have the right to eat. It is a form of protest to open a community soup kitchen there. The government doesn’t want to see poor people eating there – they put up with us for a year and a half, but now they can’t put up with us any longer. 

While we’re talking, on a central street corner, two elderly passers-by come up to Castells and warmly shake his hand. “Good luck with your struggle,” they tell him. “Keep up the good work.” As I leave, they are taking turns to pose for photos with him.

Like Robin Hood, Argentina’s most famous piquetero is a controversial figure, revered by some and reviled by others. He might not become the country’s next president – but he’s still be here, making sure Argentina knows what he’s fighting for.