Cultural Heritage and Labour Disputes in Buenos Aires' Historic District

This paper examines how a difficult present can re-signify understandings and uses of urban heritage. Although the field of cultural heritage is not new to disputes (Chechi, 2014), considering present-day labour conflicts and working-class issues can challenge dominant ways of understanding heritage and history (Smith, Shackel and Campbell, 2011) and offer original insights into the current uses of heritage. This paper examines recent contention over cultural heritage in San Telmo, Buenos Aires’s historic district in Argentina, through an ethnographic research film documentary I made to make visible a story of crisis, injustice, solidarity and resistance in a changing urban district. The case study is Bar Dorrego, a cafe-bar located in a nineteenth-century building declared a ‘Notable Bar’ and a ‘Site of Cultural Interest’ by the City government. After a labour dispute with the manager, the workers occupied Bar Dorrego and established a co-op to self-run the business. In a quick move to save the Bar, Argentina’s National Commission of Monuments, Places and Historic Assets declared it ‘an Asset of National Historical Interest’. What ideas about ‘cultural heritage’ are mobilised and made visible through this case study? How does an existing labour dispute disrupt and challenge views about the meanings of this place’s heritage? I discuss the extent to which the concept of a ‘living heritage’ (Hall, 1999; Poulios, 2014) might help preserve listed buildings, particularly when workers’ views, experiences and knowledges are a constitutive part of intangible heritage associated to a place. In so doing, I seek to highlight the importance of the everyday life of a place, its social function, and the intangible contributions of those who make a place what it is. The paper contributes to debates in critical heritage studies, particularly the concept of living heritage and its significance in relation to informal work, resistance and gentrification.