Observation And Analysis Of Pasaje Santos Discépolo

Pasaje Santos Discépolo is a diagonal street that connects the corners of Corrientes and Riobamba with Callao and Lavalle. The street is only approximately 400 meters long and is not as wide as a regular road. The street has a mix of 19th century style streetlamps and modern streetlights, several trees, and two bike racks at either entrance. While observing the space, a number of both physical and social points of contention became evident. Pasaje Santos Discépolo is intended for pedestrian use. Red circular signs at both entrances prohibit the travel of cars and motorcycles. However, while observing this passageway, I noticed a car parked in front of one of the buildings and motorcyclists using the street freely, albeit at a reduced speed.
Along the path there are many benches and chairs, presumably intended to encourage the lingering of pedestrians in the space. However, there were three men who sat at one of the sets of permanent table and chairs on the right side of the path openly sharing a large beer bottle. This behavior is illegal in Buenos Aires, but there was no police presence on the path and no passerby seemed to take notice. On one of the benches a man was laying down asleep. Most people who walked by did not notice this man, but when I walked by I thought it impossible not to note his large exposed belly hanging out from his shirt and his loud snoring. Behind another bench there was a collection of blankets, suggesting someone may have used the area as a sheltered refuge at night. When I asked my host mother what she thought of the people who used the space in this way she said it was bad, as it made the city look poor. She also added that many of these people are immigrants from nearby Latin American countries. I sensed my host mom was uncomfortable with this this topic of conversation, as she spoke fast and tensed her face. Those drinking and sleeping along the path are representative of the types of people whose behavior is at odds with the original intentions of the space, but who utilize the seclusion of Pasaje Santos Discépolo to their advantage
The ways in which the way the space is ultimately utilized. It is in places like Pasaje Santos Discépolo that the myth of “The Paris of the South” is contested. This contestation and the fear it elicits in middle-class portenos was apparent in the language my host mother used when she spoke of Pasaje Santos Discépolo. To talk about the homelessness problem in Buenos Aires as an issue of its visibility in public spaces, rather than with concern for its causes, suggests the middle-class portenas like my host mother are more worried about the perception and image of the city more than the city’s inhabitants. As Gauno noted, this is rooted in the middle class’ deeply held fear of the encroachment of the lower class into middle class spaces (Gauno 2004, 74). My host mother’s belief that using Pasaje Santos Discépolo at night was unsafe further highlights the ways in which the presence of the poor in public spaces is not just unwanted, but actually something seen as dangerous by the middle-class porteno (Gauno 2004, 80). This danger was explicitly racialized in her categorization of the homeless as mainly Latin-American immigrants, who do not meet the standard of whiteness for the modern and middle-class portenos and are thus excluded from middle-class ‘public’ spaces (Gauno 2004, 75). While it may have not been police