The 1967 Flood in Buenos Aires: Disasters and the Intertwining Spatial, Natural and Political Processes in Shantytowns

ADRIANA LAURA MASSIDDA

Lima

Congreso; XXXV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association; 2017

Latin American Studies Association

In October 1967 a large flood caused by the meteorological phenomenon known as Sudestada affected the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, with particularly devastating effects in the South West. This area, originally a floodplain, was largely populated by shantytown residents who had gradually transformed its grounds into habitable territory by levelling-out land or extending pipework. The flood left sixty-three people dead, thousands displaced, and massive material loss affecting lower-income families. The floods provoked by the Sudestada were aggravated by anthropogenic factors such as railway embankments which hindered the natural flow of rainwater or the poor maintenance of the drainage system.This paper will take the 1967 flood in Buenos Aires as a starting point to analyse the role of the environment in historical processes, the role of the human in natural disasters, and the ways in which the interrelation between the two affect larger urban politics. The flood struck hard in shantytowns, with a threefold effect. On top of the physical injury and material loss, the flood was used by the national government as a pretext to launch an ambitious programme of shantytown eradication, claiming that those populations living at risk of flood needed to be permanently relocated. Simultaneously, however, it led to the strengthening of solidarity networks in shantytowns and to an acceleration of the spatial transformation that residents had developed so far. Thus, the 1967 flood stands a crucial step within a spatial, social and political process, co-produced by artificial as well as natural factors, which continues until the present day.