Magical Urbanism, a website about urbanization, design and social change, is maintained by Mike Ernst. I'm an urban planner and designer based in New York City. I graduated from the Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires
Note: For more accurate translations and more context, please view the comments section. Thanks to Enrique, Antonio, and Robert for your translations!
Buenos Aires is the political and social capital of Argentina, and by far the biggest city. That means that much of the nation’s political conversations are played out in here. The underrepresented and the politically radical use the streets as a means of being heard.
During the Dirty War, a campaign was waged by the military dictatorship against activists, leftist students, and anyone they deemed as a threat. Between 1977 and 1983, 30,000 people “disappeared”, with no due process, no representation in a court of law, and no justice for their kidnappers. Few ever were released; most were tortured and killed, their bodies dumped into the Rio de la Plata.
During this time, the families of the disappeared, particularly the mothers, began to organize, slowly at first, as a means of supporting each other. Every Thursday, mothers of the disappeared would meet at Buenos Aires’ main square, the Plaza de Mayo. This group of women, which came to be know as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo has fought since then with one goal in mind: reuniting with their taken children. To this day, they still meet at the Plaza, asking that same question. The image of their white scarves (pictured above) has come to symbolize their plight. Though the government today is sympathetic to the families of the disappeared, no answers have been provided as to what happened to the bodies of their children.
Throughout the city, stencils and graffiti leave charged messages, reminding the masses about the lingering effects of totalitarianism and questioning the motives of recent and current governments. Much of the graffiti deals with the recent economic crisis, which devastated Argentina’s poor and working class.
My Spanish is atrocious, so if anyone cares to help me out on translations, please please please leave a comment with the correct translation.
Never again!
At the service of impunity
Where are they?
Secuestro
Tortura
Asesinato
Repression
Kidnapping
Torture
Assassination
Notice that around the car (a Ford falcon) it reads: Ayer Hoy PFA, meaning: Yesterday Today P(olicia) F(ederal) A(rgentina). The Ford Falcon was the official car used by PFA agents (both painted with the police colors and unmarked), and is still remembered as a symbol of the dictatorship.
30,000 deuda interna
We owe $150,000 million dollars to foreign countries,
and 30,000 missing persons to our own
Read The Case of the Poor
A reference to a radical text by Eduardo Sartelli. I haven’t been able to find an English translation of the book.
30 Years
It was the recent 30 year anniversary of the beginning of the military coup that led the Dirty War. The anniversary was marked by huge marches in the Plaza de Mayo.
Reform the laws now!
A reference to the University system in Buenos Aires, which is apparently not in the best shape.
Hang in there, Fidel
A reference to Fidel Castro’s recent illness
More excellent graffiti can be found at Robert Wright’s website.
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12 Responses to “Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires”
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Nice post.
Just a note: I think that the ironic graffiti “Al servicio de la impunidad” may be translated simply as “At the service of impunity”.
Best wishes
[quote comment="1109"]Nice post.
Just a note: I think that the ironic graffiti “Al servicio de la impunidad” may be translated simply as “At the service of impunity”.
Best wishes[/quote]
Thanks for the help, Enrique.
Hi, Mike - Thanks for checking out my stencil gallery. Just found a few more good ones the other day, but not enough for a complete post.
The Madres have also taken up many other causes & one faction (that of Hebe de Bonafini) has quit marching altogether. Her faction lost a lot of support after she rejoiced at the WTC attacks. Thankfully, Estela de Carlotto still generates a lot of respect & they continue to identify remains & orphans based on DNA testing. The story of Azucena Villaflor is particularly interesting since they just identified her remains last year. It’s great that the founding Madre found a final resting place on Plaza de Mayo.
Abrazo! Oh, the “reforma de estatuto” graffiti has to do with the univsersity system. It’s a big mess… nothing new for Argentina :)
Hi there! It’s funny to see that one of my favourite urban blogs is now being written from Buenos Aires, my own city.
Since you requested it, here goes my contribution for the grafitti translaton.
Nunca m?°s! / Never Again! : “Nunca M?°s” is the title of the report that compiled and documented human rights violations during our last dictatorship. (http://www.nuncamas.org/index2.htm -in english-)
Al servicio de la impunidad/ At the service of impunity: Mocking the Argentinian Federal Police (PFA) motto “Al servicio de la comunidad / At the service of community”. During the dictatorship days, the police routinely abducted and “disapperaed” people. The stencil shows a police officer, not one of the generals.
Represi??n - Secuestro… / Repression - Kidnapping… : Notice that around the car (a Ford falcon) it reads: “Ayer Hoy PFA”, meaning: ” Yesterday Today P(olic??a) F(ederal) A(rgentina)”. The Ford Falcon was the official car used by PFA agents (both painted with the police colors and unmarked), and is still remembered as a symbol of the dictatorship.
150.000 millone$… / 150.00 million$… : We owe 150.000 million dollars to foreign countries, and 30.000 missing persons to our own.
lee la cajita infeliz: Should be translated as “read the unhappy meal”. McDonald’s happy meal is known as “cajita feliz” -happy little box- here.
30 a?±os / 30 years: Another Ford Falcon.
[...] Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires [...]
[...] Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires [...]
In relation to the image:
Repression
Kidnapping
Torture
Assassination
I thought the two words either side of the car were also pertinent to the image.
‘AYER’ and ‘HOY’
or ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’
Afraid I can’t work out what the word underneath is.
Great blog, just reminding me how I told myself I’d be back out travelling by now.
I have just returned to the UK after living and working in Buenos Aires for most of the year. I also developed a fascination for the street art in Buenos Aires, and spent whole afternoons taking photos, and I have enjoyed your website very much. In a city that doesn’t preserve heritage in the same way as the more economically developed western cities, street art provides the perfect means to explore the historical and political development of this incredible city. If you haven’t been, I can certainly recommend wandering the streets of Barracas towards the Riachuelo, from Yrigoyen station extending south. There are wonderful displays of street art in that area. well done on an interesting site, i hope you carry it on.
this is trully a moving and amazing aricle, it is such a perfect resource for my World Issues paper, i will be sure to give you much credit!
Hi! Great post.
I think I’m really late for this, but here’s my two cents anyway: I’d be, uhm, careful when referring to the 1976-1983 dictatorship as the “dirty war”. I’d use quotes at least, and here’s why: the dictatorship was called a “war” by the military (and their supporters), a war against subversion. It was a way of hiding what was really being done and making it look like there were really two equal forces fighting: the military and “subversion” (think communism during the Cold War). Ok, I think I explained it without getting too lengthy. Sorry about the possible bad english.
Thank you very much for this article. You have really helped me on my school assignment. Cheers! -credit is given.
[...] com MP3 Will work for a touchscreen cell phone with an MP3 playerFolks might be interested in a similar article I wrote when I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina a few years back. Sunday, October 2nd, 2011. Filed under: Art Design long Street art Urbanization5 Responses and [...]
Nice post.
Just a note: I think that the ironic graffiti “Al servicio de la impunidad” may be translated simply as “At the service of impunity”.
Best wishes
[quote comment="1109"]Nice post.
Just a note: I think that the ironic graffiti “Al servicio de la impunidad” may be translated simply as “At the service of impunity”.
Best wishes[/quote]
Thanks for the help, Enrique.
Hi, Mike - Thanks for checking out my stencil gallery. Just found a few more good ones the other day, but not enough for a complete post.
The Madres have also taken up many other causes & one faction (that of Hebe de Bonafini) has quit marching altogether. Her faction lost a lot of support after she rejoiced at the WTC attacks. Thankfully, Estela de Carlotto still generates a lot of respect & they continue to identify remains & orphans based on DNA testing. The story of Azucena Villaflor is particularly interesting since they just identified her remains last year. It’s great that the founding Madre found a final resting place on Plaza de Mayo.
Abrazo! Oh, the “reforma de estatuto” graffiti has to do with the univsersity system. It’s a big mess… nothing new for Argentina :)
Hi there! It’s funny to see that one of my favourite urban blogs is now being written from Buenos Aires, my own city.
Since you requested it, here goes my contribution for the grafitti translaton.
Nunca m?°s! / Never Again! : “Nunca M?°s” is the title of the report that compiled and documented human rights violations during our last dictatorship. (http://www.nuncamas.org/index2.htm -in english-)
Al servicio de la impunidad/ At the service of impunity: Mocking the Argentinian Federal Police (PFA) motto “Al servicio de la comunidad / At the service of community”. During the dictatorship days, the police routinely abducted and “disapperaed” people. The stencil shows a police officer, not one of the generals.
Represi??n - Secuestro… / Repression - Kidnapping… : Notice that around the car (a Ford falcon) it reads: “Ayer Hoy PFA”, meaning: ” Yesterday Today P(olic??a) F(ederal) A(rgentina)”. The Ford Falcon was the official car used by PFA agents (both painted with the police colors and unmarked), and is still remembered as a symbol of the dictatorship.
150.000 millone$… / 150.00 million$… : We owe 150.000 million dollars to foreign countries, and 30.000 missing persons to our own.
lee la cajita infeliz: Should be translated as “read the unhappy meal”. McDonald’s happy meal is known as “cajita feliz” -happy little box- here.
30 a?±os / 30 years: Another Ford Falcon.
[...] Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires [...]
[...] Political Graffiti in Buenos Aires [...]
In relation to the image:
Repression
Kidnapping
Torture
Assassination
I thought the two words either side of the car were also pertinent to the image.
‘AYER’ and ‘HOY’
or ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’
Afraid I can’t work out what the word underneath is.
Great blog, just reminding me how I told myself I’d be back out travelling by now.
I have just returned to the UK after living and working in Buenos Aires for most of the year. I also developed a fascination for the street art in Buenos Aires, and spent whole afternoons taking photos, and I have enjoyed your website very much. In a city that doesn’t preserve heritage in the same way as the more economically developed western cities, street art provides the perfect means to explore the historical and political development of this incredible city. If you haven’t been, I can certainly recommend wandering the streets of Barracas towards the Riachuelo, from Yrigoyen station extending south. There are wonderful displays of street art in that area. well done on an interesting site, i hope you carry it on.
this is trully a moving and amazing aricle, it is such a perfect resource for my World Issues paper, i will be sure to give you much credit!
Hi! Great post.
I think I’m really late for this, but here’s my two cents anyway: I’d be, uhm, careful when referring to the 1976-1983 dictatorship as the “dirty war”. I’d use quotes at least, and here’s why: the dictatorship was called a “war” by the military (and their supporters), a war against subversion. It was a way of hiding what was really being done and making it look like there were really two equal forces fighting: the military and “subversion” (think communism during the Cold War). Ok, I think I explained it without getting too lengthy. Sorry about the possible bad english.
Thank you very much for this article. You have really helped me on my school assignment. Cheers! -credit is given.
[...] com MP3 Will work for a touchscreen cell phone with an MP3 playerFolks might be interested in a similar article I wrote when I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina a few years back. Sunday, October 2nd, 2011. Filed under: Art Design long Street art Urbanization5 Responses and [...]