Changes in the representation of the capitalist structure and its impact on the everyday life of the marginal mass between mid-twentieth century and the present. The case of the inhabitants of an emergency settlement in San Nicolas city

Abstract

The present work proposes to analyze the changes operated in the form of representation of the capitalist structure and his influence on the ordinariness of the inhabitants from Villa Tranquila, in San Nicolás city, from the years of neoliberal restructuring of the Argentine State, especially in the '90 decade. This settlement has a very particular history, since decades ago there was forming a part of a much bigger neighborhood, called Villa Pulmón born from the accession of people from the north of the country, who found employment in the construction of the metallurgical company SOMISA. At the end of the last military dictatorship, Villa Pulmón is removed, resisting only the small neighborhood where we will centre our study, occupied by approximately 40 families. In the big area that before was occupying Villa Pulmón, installed the sanctuary of the Virgin Mary, already in the first years of the democracy. During the government of Carlos Menem, SOMISA was privatized and San Nicolás lost partly of his industrial profile to turn into a city orientated to the services, with great influence of the religious tourism to the sanctuary. This work, in addition, collect the memory constructed in Villa Pulmón, indexed in a national State with a industrialist project and a strong presence in the management of strategic sectors of the economy, to oppose it with the reality of the current inhabitants of Villa Tranquila, between whom we find the characteristics of the urban-marginal sectors of the current importance, related to the disaffiliation of the world of the formal work and of other institutions that before were marking the pulse of the hard-working class, as the public school, the unions, etc. The used information has been extracted from interview wit inhabitants of Villa Tranquila of different ages: adult women, generally mothers, and teen males of between 12 and 18 years, as well as to an ex-inhabitant of Villa Pulmón.