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The Villa 31–31 bis, commonly known simply as the Villa 31, is the oldest and most prominent villa miseria of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is notable for its strategic location, built on state-owned land that is surrounded by the Retiro railway tracks, the port area and the Dr. Arturo Umberto Illia highway, which act as barriers that isolate it from the formal city. In the 1990s, the settlements spread to the other side of the Illia highway and were formally recognized by the government as a separate villa under the name Villa 31 bis, although this separation has been problematic and it may also be considered as just another of the sub-neighborhoods that make up the Villa 31. The Villa 31–31 bis is also known as the Barrio 31 or by the official name Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica (or Barrio Mugica for short), so as to to move away from the term villa and highlight its inclusion as one more neighborhood in the city, especially since its urbanization project began in 2016.

With an estimated population of 59,000 people, the Villa 31–31 bis is one of largest villas in Buenos Aires, although it is neither the most populous nor the largest in territory, as it is sometimes claimed. According to the National Registry of Popular Neighborhoods (Spanish: Registro Nacional de Barrios Populares; ReNaBaP) updated as of December 2023, the Villa 31–31 bis has an area of 463,925 square meters, where approximately 14,300 families live in around 13,000 dwellings. At the jurisdictional level, it is located within the official neighborhoods (Spanish: barrios) of Retiro and Recoleta, which in turn correspond to the comunnes (Spanish: comunas) number 1 and 2, respectively. Thus, unlike other informal settlements of Buenos Aires, it is located in a central area and in the vicinity of the most affluent neighborhoods, a contrast that has contributed to make it the most visible and emblematic of all villas in the city.

The neighborhood has its antecedent in a settlement known as Villa Desocupación, established by European immigrants in 1932 during the Great Depression and forcibly evicted in 1935. The Villa 31 as such began to form in the 1940s, when the first neighbourhoods that currently make up the villa appeared, and grew during that decade and the 1950s as the import substitution industrialization process generated a migration from northwestern Argentina and some neighbouring countries to the city in search of work.

Under the government of mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, an unprecedented urbanization project for the Villa 31–31 bis began in 2016 and is still ongoing, financed with loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

1932–1935: Antecedent as Villa Desocupación
The Villa 31 has its antecedent in the informal settlement known as Villa Desocupación (lit. 'Unemployment Village'), also known as Villa Esperanza (esperanza meaning "hope"), built in 1932 on the banks of the Río de la Plata near the port, more specifically at the junction of Canning street (present-day Scalabrini Ortiz avenue) with the Río de la Plata, within the neighborhood of Palermo. The emergence of Villa Desocupación, along with other villas miseria of Buenos Aires, was a consequence of the severe economic crisis caused by the Great Depression. Unlike Villa Desocupación, these other villas were located on what then were peripheral areas of the city—such as Belgrano and Parque Patricios—which is why there are practically no records of them in terms of primary sources. Due to its central location, Villa Desocupación gained great notoriety that is documented in a set of various testimonies that include government and police reports, the state-linked press, and literary works.



Shortly before Villa Desocupación was established, the officer Agustín P. Justo became president of Argentina, as part of the military dictatorship that had been installed in a 1930 coup d'état and had inaugurated the period known as the "Infamous Decade". Justo's government sought to recover the legitimacy of certain republican institutions, unlike the corporatist pretensions of his predecessor José Félix Uriburu. In this context, on November 5, 1934, the National Board to Combat Unemployment (Spanish: Junta Nacional Para Combatir la Desocupación), also known as the National Board to Combat Unemployment (Spanish: Junta Nacional de Lucha contra la Desocupación), began its functions and remained in force for the following 10 years. One of the first initiatives taken by this organization consisted of the forced eviction of the Villa Desocupación and the relocation of part of its population to a new Official Shelter (Spanish: Albergue Oficial) established near the port. As described by an official report of the National Board to Combat Unemployment issued in 1938: As soon as it was constituted, the National Board considered it essential to suppress the existing camps of the unemployed in the vicinity of the port and concentrate all these people in the Official Shelter, or force them to disperse. These purposes were fulfilled with the effective collaboration of the Police of the Capital and the Investigating Judge, Dr. Ernesto González Gowland. All the buildings erected in the area of Canning Street at its junction with the Río de la Plata, unhygienic constructions that, in addition to uglifying that point, constituted a serious sanitary concern, have been demolished, establishing severe surveillance to prevent such a camp from forming again.

1936–1965: Origin and consolidation of the villa
The original settlement of the Villa 31 took place between the mid-20th century and the 1970s and reflected the general changes in migratory flows in Argentina. Its origins date back to when the first sectors from which the villa would expand and take shape were established; these were the Saldías and Inmigrantes neighborhoods. The area known as Saldías grew out of a railway workers' neighbourhood located next to the station of the same name, and its original characteristics do not correspond to the usual definition of a villa. However, in the mid-20th century, new precarious dwellings were built next to the workers' housing in the area, turning Saldías into one of the first sub-sectors of Villa 31. Today, the settlement still exists but is no longer part of the Villa 31, as it was isolated from the neighbourhood after a forced eradication in the 1970s.

While the villa grew from north to south from Saldías, it also began to be populated in the opposite direction with the emergence of the Inmigrantes neighborhood which, unlike the former, is still part of the Villa 31. It was established around 1946, when the State built a series of houses in the area to house a contingent of Italians who arrived in the country following World War II. This is where its name comes from (Spanish for "immigrants") and the reason it was also known as the "Barrio de los Tanos" ("neighborhood of the Italians"). This area was also known for a short time as Villa 24 and later another villa, located in Barracas, would take that name. According to activist Luciano Nardulli, whose family arrived in Buenos Aires from Italy and settled in the Inmigrantes neighborhood, the settlement originally consisted of two rows of houses. In spite of being made of precarious materials such as wood and sheet metal, all the houses had their own bathrooms and wood-burning stoves, and were connected to water, sewage and electricity networks, in addition to having an elementary school built for the inhabitants.

According to a 1956 police census, the total population of the Inmigrantes neighborhood was around 2,500 inhabitants, distributed among 300 dwellings. This indicates that, despite having a significantly larger population, the Inmigantes neighborhood maintained similar levels of overcrowding as Saldías. According to researcher Dora Bordegaray, the construction of this housing complex was part of a series of similar measures implemented during the first Peronist governments: "In order to provide shelter to the most vulnerable sectors of society, several groups of houses were built, considered 'emergency' by the government itself, since, despite being built with precarious materials, they temporarily alleviated the lack of housing. These neighborhoods were located in areas where there was already spontaneous occupation of land or where there was no market interest."

Following the consolidation of the neighborhood's northern and southern sections, the intervening areas began to be occupied, primarily due to the labor needs of the local port and railroad. The first dwellings were built in the YPF sector around 1950, and during the latter half of the 1950s, the areas known as Güemes and Comunicaciones were also occupied. According to sociologist Ernesto Pastrana, a 1962 municipal census considered the five settlements existing up to that time as part of a larger neighborhood already known as Villa 31. That document indicated that there were 6,731 inhabitants in the neighborhood, distributed in 1,856 dwellings. In terms of existing services, the census reported that, aside from the Inmigrantes neighborhood, potable water was accessed via public taps, there was no household electricity, and several wells were used for sanitation. Two years after the census, the Laprida neighborhood was created when the State provided abandoned railcars to about a hundred families from the northern provinces of Santiago del Estero and Tucumán.

Once these six initial sectors (Saldías, Inmigrantes, YPF, Güemes, Comunicaciones and Laprida) were formed, Villa 31 had achieved a certain incorporation into the formal city fabric, through the paving of its main access roads and the arrival of public transportation.

By the mid-1960s, the settlement of the Villa 31 was consolidated when the neighborhoods of YPF, Güemes, Comunicaciones and Laprida were formed and coexisted with the already formed Inmigrantes and Saldías.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, the "problem" of the villas became a concern for both state authorities and social scientists, who at the that time were focused on modernization theory.

1966–1975: Height of social and political activism


The importance of the Villa 31 was cemented not only because of its age and large population (reaching 24,324 inhabitants in 1976), but also for being the most socially organized villa, as its inhabitants had a leading role in the political mobilization that revolved around the return of Juan Domingo Perón to the country during the early 1970s. The intense activity of neighborhood commissions was driven by the presence of external political activists, mainly from the Catholic Church and political parties.

These reasons caused the state contemplate the demands of the villa.

In 1967, Mugica took part in the founding of the Movement of Priests for the Third World (Spanish: Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo; MSTM).

https://www.cultura.gob.ar/46-anos-del-asesinato-del-padre-mugica-el-cura-de-los-pobres-9005/ https://www.la-razon.com/escape/2021/12/13/los-curas-villeros/?amp

https://www.infobae.com/opinion/2021/10/10/el-papa-francisco-los-curas-villeros-y-el-padre-carlos-mugica/?outputType=amp-type

1976–1982: Attempted eradication by the last dictatorship


By 1976,

1984–1995: Repopulation after the return of democracy
https://acij.org.ar/wp-content/uploads/Las_organizaciones_villeras_en_la_Capital_Federal_entre_1989.pdf

1996–2015: Further expansion
https://www.perfil.com/noticias/amp/politica/ramona-pj-organizaciones-sociales-horacio-rodriguez-larreta-historia-politica-secreta-villa-31%20.phtml

https://esnuestralaciudad.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/03_03_FernandezCastro.pdf

2016–present: Current urbanization project


The relocation of the Ministry of Education to the villa was questioned by many residents, who pointed out that there are more important demands, such as the need for a hospital or improved access to water.

https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3692/369233935005/html/

https://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/villa-31-ocho-decadas-de-supervivencia-y-fracaso-urbanistico-en-buenos-aires/20000013-4280007

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/economia/villa-31-los-emprendimientos-de-vecinos-cambian-la-fisonomia-y-la-dinamica-del-lugar-nid11042022/

https://www.cels.org.ar/web/2021/10/sobre-la-urbanizacion-de-la-villa-31/

https://www.pagina12.com.ar/266273-el-caso-de-ramona-medina-referenta-de-la-poderosa-en-la-vill?gclid=CjwKCAjw9e6SBhB2EiwA5myr9l2MoGojlnsWB4wwVWaJPYh8K_kvt33AXbDnu-rcXO_D_nbQExmkQxoCgaYQAvD_BwE

https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/portal/resource/pt/biblio-1396493

https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/crisis-alquileres-siente-ex-villa-31-fuertes-aumentos-actividad-crecer_0_ByQnBFnzxa.html

Location
The Villa 31–31 bis is the most visible and iconic villa of Buenos Aires due to its central location, differentiating it from the other informal settlements that are located on the outskirts of the city. It is built on government-owned land owned by the Argentine state, the General Administration of Ports (Spanish: Administración General de Puertos), the energy company YPF, and the railway (formerly Ferrocarriles Argentinos, currently Trenes Argentinos). These "urban barries" contribute to a sense of physical isolation from the formal city. The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is officially subdivided into neighborhoods (Spanish: barrios) and, since 2005, in communes (Spanish: comunas), which encompass one or more neighborhoods. In the case of the Villa 31–31 bis, it is located within the neighborhoods of Retiro and Recoleta, which in turn correspond to communes 1 and 2 respectively. Thus, it is located in the vicinity of the most affluent neighborhoods of the city, a contrast that has contributed to make it the most emblematic of all villas.

The area covered by the Villa 31–31 bis is legally defined as the "polygon (...) between Calle 4, the General San Martín Railway tracks, the virtual extension of Avda. Pueyrredón, Calle 9, Avda. Pte. Ramón S. Castillo and the virtual extension of Avda. Gendarmería Nacional."

Very close to Villa 31 is the Saldías settlement, located next to the railway station of the same name and a few metres from the wealthy Barrio Parque neighborhood; it was one of founding subsectors of the villa, but since its eradication in the 1970s it has been isolated and is no longer part of the neighborhood.

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=Rf5kDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA596&dq=villa+31&hl=es&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDs6zClJ73AhWxHrkGHSPvCLcQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=villa%2031&f=false

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=SK6fDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT385&dq=Villa+31+bis&hl=es&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY9-zWsZ_3AhVErpUCHeyWBN04ChDoAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=Villa%2031%20bis&f=false

Population
In 2009, the government of the city carried out a population and housing census in the Villa 31–31 bis, which found that 12,216 people lived in the former and 14,187 in the latter, with a combined population of 26,403. The following year, the nationwide census showed that 11,177 people lived in the Villa 31 and 15,836 in the Villa 31 bis, with a combined population of 27,013.

According to a voter registration process carried out in 2016 and 2017 by the city government, the Villa 31 has an estimated population of 20,622 people and the Villa 31 bis of 19,581, with a combined population of 40,203 inhabitants. Based on the estimated quantities in this report, the most populated sectors of the villas are Güemes (6,842), Playón Oeste (5,632) and Playón Este (5,250), while Inmigrantes (1,255) and Comunicaciones (1,331) have the lowest number. The study also found that the number of households in Villa 31–31 bis is estimated at 12,825.

According to the National Registry of Popular Neighborhoods (Spanish: Registro Nacional de Barrios Populares; ReNaBaP)—developed by the former Ministry of Social Development—updated as of December 2023, the Villa 31–31 bis has an area of 463,925 square meters and is formed by approximately 13,000 dwellings where approximately 14,300 families live. According to these data, the population of Villa 31 can be estimated at approximately 59 thousand people.

The 2009 census carried out by the city government found that 50.6% of the population of the Villa 31–31 bis was born in foreign countries, especially Bolivia (16.6%) and Peru (9.8%), with 29% being a native of the city.

Subdivisions
The Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica is made up of two adjacent villas that are delimited by the Illia highway: the Villa 31 and Villa 31 bis, which themselves are subdivided into several neighborhoods. This division has been criticized by some authors and neighbors, who consider that the latter to be one more neighborhood of the Villa 31 itself and not a different villa. As noted by researcher Claudio Alejandro Sehtman y Cavo in 2009, the "name Villa 31 is the common denominator of a group of neighborhoods that share their location in the same area and their informal character. The composition and characteristics of this group have varied greatly over time, but, nevertheless, the features of unity justify the use of the name Villa 31 to refer to all of them. Particularly problematic, in this sense, is the official treatment of the sector called Villa 31 bis since its separation, in terms of government management, from the Villa 31. (...) Considering the Villa 31 in its unity does not imply denying or ignoring the heterogeneity of the neighborhoods that compose it, but rather prioritizing their common situation".

The Villa 31 is subdivided in the Comunicaciones, Güemes, Inmigrantes and YPF neighborhoods; while the Villa 31 bis in the Autopista, Playón Este, Playón Oeste, Ferroviario, Cristo Obrero and San Martín neighborhoods.


 * Neighborhoods of the Villa 31 and Villa 31 bis

Government and politics
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/la-silenciosa-guerra-politica-en-la-villa-31-nid1076126/?outputType=amp

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/la-silenciosa-guerra-politica-en-la-villa-31-nid1076126/?outputType=amp

Culture
The gastronomic offer of the neighborhood is a reflection of the immigrant communities that inhabit it, with dishes from Paraguayan, Bolivian and Peruvian cuisines.

Since 2019, the Barrio 31 has its own pride march.

Crime
According to the 2019 Homicide Report (Spanish: Informe sobre Homicidios 2019) carried out by the Council of Magistracy of the Nation, the Villa 31–31 bis is the villa in Buenos Aires with the highest number of homicides, with 13 cases, followed by the Villa 21–24 in Barracas with 12 cases. Combined, the Villa 31–31 bis and Villa 21–24 account for 59% of the homicides in the villas of Buenos Aires. According to the Crime Statistics Report (Spanish: Informe de Estadística Criminal 2021) prepared by the city government, the number of deaths by intentional homicide in the Villa 31–31 bis has decreased in recent years: while in 2019 it accounted for 35% of cases in all Buenos Aires villas, in 2020 it dropped to 28.85% and the following year to 12.82%.

Within the villa there are different gangs mainly dedicated to drug dealing.