Fantasmas

Buenos Aires is home to a neighborhood called Abasto, named after its former market that became a mall. Despite predictions that the mall would transform the area, it remains a slightly rustic, somewhat marginal version of a 20th-century location. It is a place the reporter enjoys. While studying Art History at university, the reporter created a work about an abandoned building from the 90s, walking around the neighborhood, interviewing locals.

Until 2008, they lived near Almagro, taking theater classes at a cultural center in a nearby public school, which was once where the market once stood. They walked to and from classes, including at night. They appreciated the cobblestone streets, the alleys with strange trees, and the somewhat provincial climate experienced at certain times of the day.

For years, they saw a graffiti message on their way home from the city center to their home: "The kids at Abasto don't need toys. They play with rats." According to official data from September, 44.5% of Argentine children under 14 live in poverty. Recent UNICEF Argentina reports indicate that a million and ten thousand live below the poverty line.

The city government launched a campaign with the slogan "Order and Law", featuring posters saying "A City Without Occupiers" or "A City Without Vagrants," referring to informal sellers. The graffiti at Abasto disappeared. The reporter wonders where the rats went and where the children have gone. They question if the dignity of cities is measured by the nature of the ghosts they attempt to hide.