The Rebranding of Buenos Aires’ Villa 31. Race, Class and Whiteness (2011-2017)

This paper explores the stigmatization and transformation of Villa 31, one of the oldest and largest informal settlements in Buenos Aires. Historically, residents of Villa 31 have been labeled “villeros,” a term with racial connotations rooted in Argentina’s late 19th-century white supremacist ideology, which promoted a Westernized, white identity for the nation.

Governance actors, including media, government officials, and business leaders, have worked to rebrand Villa 31 and its residents by erasing stigmatized identities and promoting new, positive ones. They repositioned residents as “vecinos” (neighbors), implying property ownership and taxpaying, aligning with white Argentinean ideology to support redevelopment and discourage resistance.

As public works projects neared completion in 2017, efforts intensified to market Barrio 31 (the new name for Villa 31) as a cultural and gastronomic destination. This transformation aimed to commodify the area, turning it from a stigmatized “ghetto space” into a multicultural attraction, promoting “diversity” and “gastronomy.”

To sum, this paper examines how the rebranding of Villa 31 into Barrio 31 aimed to create a new, economically vibrant community. However, it raised concerns among residents about the erasure of their historical identities and activism. The social integration rhetoric used by governance actors served to build support for the redevelopment of Barrio 31 while masking underlying issues of whiteness and class.