Soccer and Public Housing

Why would soccer and public housing ever go together in a sentence- well in BsAs one of the well know teams home field is located across from one of the most dangerous villas (housing developments) In the City. Last night we attend the San Lorenzo vs Tigre Futbol match at the San Lorenzo stadium. Tickets are 110 pesos this is about $22.50 per ticket but $110 pesos here is a steep prices in comparison. It would be similar to the price of Eagles tickets in Philly.

The game was very well attended and the parking is right in front of the public housing. So I will describe both experience which I had independently with the game and housing issues in BsAs.

The game was a ton of fun and the drums and songs were deafening. Both songs had so many banners, signs, chants, dances etc.  Watching them was almost as interesting as the game itself. Both teams played well with great passion and it got very heated on the field, but the sportsmanship remained high.  San Lorenzo won by two scores and both goals were brilliant.  The lead player for San Lorenzo left the game with 10 minutes left and he received a standing ovation. I loved the men in the stands who would get so upset with any foul or error. The hand gestures and swears were hysterical.

The majority of the attendees were men of all ages. Many men with their sons, a few families and spattering of women.At the end of the game there is police in full on riot gear that helps escort the opposing team out of the stadium and out of the lot. As a matter of fact they held all the gates closed and we could not leave the stadium until the fans of the opposing team had left.  I thought that was really interesting and and probably for very good reason. There was tremendous patience for the gates to open. I could only think with my east coast temperament how well folks would take to waiting locked inside of the Linc, waiting for the other teams fans to leave. Chew on that.

Having the game directly across from the public housing says many things. There is an acknowledgement of poverty but in my eyes this current government has turn its back on extreme poverty. To put into context poverty and housing here are so incredibly different then the states. You rarely see the kind of poverty that exist here, in the states. Some rural areas and some of our bad neighborhoods can come close but not at the level and depth that you find here. 

There are a number of Villas (housing areas of extreme poverty) here. In the ones I have visit they came about in different ways. One that I visit included homes (shacks, tents) built with any kind of refuse, materials and scrapes that the family can find to create some from of shelter. There can often be one shack and then after some time there are multiples until you have a full community.  They have no water supply, no electricity, no kind of bathrooms. Other Villas like the one across San Lorenzo are housing developments that were underway and not completed. So shells of buildings. The folks who live there now have rigged electricity and have water reserves on their roofs so that they have some form of water supply.

The actual development of public housing varies greatly. The make shift shack communities can often make way for public housing- but not at all in the way we think of the new public housing units that are available. many are these Villas with various stages of completion. It is an atrocious.

When we met with folks who lived in the Villas they were so surprised to have American there and even more so that Cherelle was a legislature and I worked in local government. They said not one from their government ever comes to see them and not sure they even know they exist. Needles to say the visit to these locations were intense. There was an irony and perfect way of capsulizing the growing separation of the poor and the well off in BsAs. It is not a part of BsAs that most if any tourist see. It is also removed artificially from the center part of the City and most of those who reside here.

There are many folks working to address poverty in the USA I think we try to hard to compartmentalize the work. We focus on housing, health, general welfare. The real issues is education and poverty. We have tremendous infrastructure and ability. Our middle class is still very strong but the growing drop out rate and increases in poverty levels needs to be a wake up call for us.

In any event enough righteous rambling I will be home soon, inspired to move the work of poverty alleviation forward.