Overview

Boca-Barracas, Buenos Aires (population 126,000) is one of the eight sites in the 1995 revival of Growing Up in Cities. As the original port area at the mouth (la boca) of the Riachuelo River, with its associated area of warehouses (barracas), the district is one of the oldest and lowest income sections of the city. It is a district rich in history: one of the most important immigrant settlements in Argentina in the nineteenth century; the birthplace of the tango; an area where many musicians, writers and painters settled. With the construction of a larger port along the Plate River in the 1930s, the district entered a period of decline. At the close of the 20th century, flood control measures, combined with the district's proximity to the city center, have begun to attract reinvestment.

A Growing Up in Cities team began work in Boca-Barracas in 1996, under the direction of Nilda Cosco (Lekotek, Argentina) and Robin Moore (North Carolina State University and IPA–the Association for the Child's Right to Play). Eduardo Ellis and Dr. Antonio Battro, leaders of Growing Up in Cities in Argentina in the 1970s, served as advisors. Action-research was carried out with 32 ten through 14 year olds from different neighborhoods of the district. In addition to the standard project methods of structured interviews, drawings, child-led walks, focus group discussions, and interviews with parents, local community leaders and government officials, the children took pictures of their community and designed a public photo exhibit. During the district's annual Winter Festival, all ages engaged in a community mapping activity called "Gulliver's footprints."

The project highlighted issues related to urban life quality for children through feature stories in the newspapers La Nacion and Clarin, radio interviews, public fora at the YMCA and the Ribera Theater in La Boca, an exhibit at Recoleta (the cultural center of Buenos Aires), and seminars for public officials, urban planners and labor leaders in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. A project-based program called "The Neighborhood as a Child's Habitat" was incorporated into the activities of El Movil Verde (the Green Van), a mobile environmental education unit sponsored by the October Foundation, which visits schools and community organizations around the city. One organization which the staff of El Movil Verde have visited is Mutual Esperanza in La Boca, where the program has led to children's involvement in plans to redevelop two abandoned plazas. Through a donation from the Children's Hour Helping Fund of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, a toy library and after-school program were established in the Boca-Barracas YMCA.