{"id":3002,"date":"2015-01-14T18:38:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T18:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.menteargentina.com\/blog\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2025-10-22T19:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:05:41","slug":"neighborhood-highlights-the-villas-cumbia-villero-and-gardel-with-an-electric-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.menteargentina.com\/blog\/neighborhood-highlights-the-villas-cumbia-villero-and-gardel-with-an-electric-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighborhood Highlights: The Villas, Cumbia Villero, and Gardel with an Electric Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surely if you have spent some time in Buenos Aires you have encountered your fair share of Boliches. Regardless of your taste in music, we have all found ourselves in the wee hours of the morning cutting a rug to some serious reggaeton and electronic cumbia. It is some sort of late night rite of passage that every Buenos Aires resident or visitor must go through.\u00a0 In the midst of those late nights you will dance to, without fail, a number of cumbia villeras.\u00a0 Cumbia villera is a type of cumbia that was born here in Buenos Aires and has since been commercially produced spread throughout Latin-America. Ever wonder about the story behind cumbia villera? No? Well, that\u2019s OK I will tell you anyway\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"villa31\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Villeros <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can pick out a cumbia villera by its lo-fi, low quality sounding electronic instruments (so many keytars\u2026) \u00a0and lyrics that often refer to drugs, sex, and various other \u00a8delinquent\u00a8 topics.\u00a0 At a glance it is easy to dismiss this genre of music, and many people have as a low class, vapid attempt at cumbia.\u00a0 However, cumbia villera is surprisingly much more complex than one might initially assume.<\/p>\n

\u00a8Villera\u00a8 refers to a subculture of people that are from \u00a0villas miserias. Villas miserias are shantytowns that have popped up and grown in Buenos Aires since the 1940s. Although Argentina is one of the most economically developed countries in Latin-America, its wealth disparity is particularly evident in urban areas and clearly demonstrated in the numerous villas that exist in and around the city. The most famous is probably Villa 31 <\/em>because it is located in Retiro, a wealthier neighborhood of the Capital. \u00a0In the last 20 years villas have grown faster than ever.\u00a0 It is difficult for the city to get exact numbers but roughly 10% of the Buenos Aires population lives in villas.\u00a0 Wow, right? Villas were originally comprised Bolivians, Peruvians, and Paraguayans, along with people who moved into the city from the north of Argentina.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What it\u2019s like <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Staying true to their name, conditions in these villas are not fun.\u00a0 Because they \"argentinevillas\"are not considered to be formal neighborhoods, they are not served by any of the city\u2019s services that we so often take for granted i.e. electricity, water, garbage treatment etc. Their narrow streets make it extremely difficult for emergency assistance to reach the villas.\u00a0 Social stigmas are not forgiving to those that grew up in the villas and
\nthe stark separation between the villas and the rest of Buenos Aires creates a cultural divide that makes villeros stick out like a sore thumb when engaging with the larger Buenos Aires. Villas are also now home to second and third generation families which, perhaps, says something about how easy it is to leave a villa\u2026especially if you were born there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When life gives you lemons\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most milestones in musical evolution (gospel, blues, \"pibeschorros\"rap, punk etc. etc.), cumbia villera came to exist in an environment of social and economic oppression. There is a huge amount of prejudice associated with all aspects of villero culture.\u00a0 From style of dress to the dialect, anything associated with the villas are often quickly dismissed as negative and low class. Just like any other subculture, people that live in villas are accustomed to their own culture and feel a source of pride in those same things that make them stand out.\u00a0 Much like the above mentioned genres of music, cumbia villera reclaims the very aspects of villero culture that are rejected by the rest of the city. You can hear a huge range of influences from music from the immigrant populations that populate the villas: cumbia (obviously), cuarteto, chamam\u00e9 as well as from rebellious genres with which the genre identifies: rock, rap, reggae etc. \u00a0Those essential lo-fi electronic instruments have poor sound quality because they are cheap.\u00a0 It is what can be afforded by someone living in a villa.\u00a0 Just the same, when these musicians make it big they carry on with the same instruments because they are representative of the culture of that they came from. The lyrics dedicated to sex, drugs, and crime serve as a testimony to the experiences of people that grow up there and brings those stories to the masses. The mixture of styles and influences come together to create a makeshift style of music that is,in a sense, the auditory manifestation of the shantytowns themselves. In no time people all over Latin America are singing along and dancing to the culture that they simultaneously reject.<\/p>\n

\"pablo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a8Gardel with an electric guitar\u00a8<\/strong><\/p>\n

When talking talk about villero pride we must discuss Pablo Lescanso. Pablo Lescanso is the godfather of cumbia villera and claims to be like Gardel with an electric guitar. That statement might be a bit of a stretch but he essentially started the genre with his band Damas Gratis<\/em>. He grew up in a villa and although he has certainly earned enough from his music he continues to live in the Villa that he comes from.\u00a0 He explained in an interview, \u00a8I didn\u2019t move. I am still living in the same house across for Carrefour on 202 in the Villa del Carmen, where I have my PC with Pro Tools and we get together to record or los pibes come over o play playstation. And then there is the house where my mom lives in La Esperanza where she stays alone with my sister Romina. I am a little bit on both sides.\u00a8<\/p>\n

In his music he gives testimony to his experience in the villa. He has since kicked the habit but when he was in his teens he became addicted to Paco, a super cheap cocaine paste that is rampant in the villas. \u00a0Some lyrics are more explicitly speaking to social inequality and others, perhaps unintentionally, give a glimpse into day to day life. \u00a0In an interview Lescanso said, \u00a8look, I want to represent what I see and what they tell me on the street. And I\u2019ll tell you something, I come to the Capital and they tell me that there are more drugs there than in the villa near my house. There they live in a different world. There many still play with marbles and trash pick with horse drawn carts. I sing about when they tell me. Not long ago a cartonero (people who collect cardboard boxes from the trash in order recycle for money) broke my heart because he asked me when I was going to dedicate a song to them. He also thinks that I am a testimonial, no?\u00a8<\/p>\n