On a cold Sunday night in June, sitting on plastic chairs in a grey town hall in the Buenos Aires suburban town of Ciudad Evita, a dozen residents are gathered. They have heard that a landfill is going to be constructed just outside their town to receive rubbish produced in the city of Buenos Aires – and they have decided to stop it.
Like every Sunday since December 2007, they have come with material to boost their fighting spirit. Various banners with sentences such as ‘to bury rubbish is to bury our future’ are brandied, a gigantic picture of Evita’s face covered in a gasmask is pinned on the wall and printed on t-shirts sold for $30.
Ciudad Evita, a city of 68,000 residents whose shape is designed to look like Eva Duarte de Perón’s profile when seen from the sky, is a quiet town. With its one-storey red brick houses, its parks, woods and sports centre, the city offers a peaceful lifestyle just 21km west of Buenos Aires.
“We are very worried,” says Néstor Abalo, one of the residents. “Landfills have proved to be very dangerous for people’s health as toxic elements infiltrate the earth, water and air.”
He decided to take action after hearing the residents’ experiences in the city of Gonzales Catán, where the most active landfill of the province is installed. Locals have been diagnosed with cancer, allergies, hepatitis and tuberculosis and blame it on the landfill. They say it emanates acid and gas fumes, which are contaminating their water.
Like Abalo, hundreds of residents have decided to uncross their arms and have set up the ‘Asamblea de vecinos autoconvocados’ (Assembly of self-convened residents). They have no official status, a new president is chosen every month, and the group comprises professionals working in diverse fields such as geology, engineering and law among others, who all dedicate their free time to the cause.
Marching on the streets, blocking an alley of the motorway every first Sunday of the month, and handing out information door to door: the residents promise they won’t give up. They are convinced they have enough reasons not to.
Archaeological value
Apart from the landfill being a health hazard, the neighbours also point out the historical value of the land. “Ciudad Evita is a national monument, and we can’t let anyone destroy her profile,” states Abalo. The location of the future construction, on 24 hectares of land next to the motorway, also has an important archaeological value. “It is where the Corpus Christi battle was fought between the Indians and the Spanish, and where Mendoza’s brother died in 1536,” he specifies. “We can’t allow history to be turned into a dustbin!”
