Delegates and directors of the Buenos Aires murgas denounced the “censorship” suffered by four Corsicansupon being “arbitrarily” suspended by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires at the same time as They repudiated the “undemocratic” statements of Deputy Ricardo López Murphy and declared themselves in a “state of alert” on the last day of the festivities.
The postcard of the festivities on Avenida de Mayo on Tuesday, the carnival holiday, contrasts with the invisibility suffered by four corsos from the historic circuit of Buenos Aires, when they were “arbitrarily” suspended by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA), without give explanations to their protagonists nor to the residents of Saavedra, Piedrabuena and Barracaspointed out the spokesmen for the murgas.
In mid-February, in the middle of carnival, the delegates who represent the 12,000 murgueros of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires They learned via WhatsApp that the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security “suggested” to the Public Spaces portfolio the suspension of two corsos from the Saavedra neighborhood, and a third from Piedrabuena.
“It was a totally arbitrary decision, without notifying the parties, that we had formed the negotiating table, after a whole year of working together. They did not even call us to an emergency meeting in the face of such a decision to close the privateers,” he said. in dialogue with Telam Verónica Mariño, director of the murga Elegidos del Dios Momo and delegate of the Buenos Aires Carnival Commission.
“The excuse was that there had been situations of violence during the week in places close to where the parades were going to take place days later and, therefore, they could not guarantee security.”
“This is how Saavedra, a neighborhood with a historical carnival tradition, ran out of festivities,” Mariño said.
For his part, Felipe Fiscina, director of the murga Arlequines de la R and delegate of the Carnival Commission, stated: “It is unprecedented that in the middle of the carnival three parades are suspended. In 25 years it never happened.”
“In addition, it was not what was agreed at the negotiating table. Despite the fact that the GCBA had proposed reducing the circuit to 11 Corsicans, as it was during the pandemic, we finally agreed on the presentation of the 35 that exist in the city”, the delegate clarified.
“We believe that It is about a paradigm shift that drives us to fight again because in 40 years of democracy there is once again censorship in privateers”he emphasized.
Mariño and Fiscina denounced the suspensions in each of the stages in which they appeared in recent days and will continue to do so this weekend, since, according to what they said, “they are using the same methodology to close the Barracas corso”.
For both, delegates and murgueros with a trajectory of more than 30 yearsBoth these actions and the declarations of representative Ricardo López Murphy, to cut the “superfluous spending” demanded by the murgas, “are part of a dirty campaign.”
In this sense, he mentioned the tweet of deputy Ricardo López Murphy: “Reasons for CABA to stop financing privateers: they are a superfluous expense, they block the streets, annoy the neighbors and, as if that were not enough, they are used to lower the political line Kirchnerist Enough of financing nonsense.
Added to this is the survey that Jorge Macri, Minister of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, launched on Twitter last week, in which he asked the people of Buenos Aires if they in 2024 they will celebrate carnival in the same way as today.
“They are campaigning and are taking advantage of the moment to sensitize a large part of their electorate. I think that 80% of the electorate of Juntos x el Cambio do not like the murgas, just as they do not like the popularFiscina pointed out.
“In addition, it must be reminded that the carnival celebration has been a Cultural Heritage of the City since 1997 and that the murgas are recognized” by ordinance 52,039 of that year, he said.
Article 3 of this regulation indicates that the local government “will promote the organization of corsos in the neighborhoods where the artistic carnival associations/groups carry out their activities, for which a specific budget item will be available in the General Budget of Expenses and Resources”.
In this regard, in 2004, in order to regulate that ordinance, the General Directorate for the Promotion of Books, Libraries and Culture, under the Ministry of Culture of CABA, created the Carnival Porteño program, and within it, the Carnival Commission , which has four delegates representing the murgas.
The murgueros recalled that in 2012 the carnival holidays returned nationwidewhich the dictatorship had banned in 1976, and said that “in the background there was a lot of fighting in the street, it was an achievement of the murgas to recover the carnival in the City.”
“Today we have to celebrate that there are murgas that, after 40 years of democracy, continue to sing and vindicate the 30,000 disappeared, or that they do not forget to the 44 dead of the ARA San Juan. They are social wounds that have not finished healing due to impunity and lack of justice,” Mariño emphasized.
An example of this is that of the murga Los Fantoches de Villa Urquizawho year after year sing the Ode to Perón and, towards the end, vindicate Evita, Perón, Néstor, Cristina and the “30 thousand”, which was criticized by López Murphy in his tweet.
“Oligarch gentleman prototype of a slave trader, who exploited the worker without compassion, the bell has rung announcing the new day for the people who saw their salvation in Perón”, sings that murga.
“It is a song that is 70 years old. Alberto Marino recorded it in 1947 and we sing it for 10 years. There is nothing new,” Ángel Fontana, director of the murga Los Fantoches de Villa Urquiza, told Télam.
“We criticize ‘picarezca’, because we like fun. We want people to be infected with our singing and dancing. We know that everyone has their ideology. We are Peronists. We have been going out with the murga since 1933. I started at 4 years old and now I am 65. Four generations of murgueros”, he recalled.
As Mariño argued, “Carnival is never going to make any government happy because its essence is criticism and mockery. That does not mean that the murgas do not have a social commitment, on the contrary, the murgueros are ordinary citizens who suffer daily from the political measures taken by others”.
“We must add that the subsidy is only enough to pay for 25% of the total expenses that the murgas have,” said the murguero. That is why the murgas are self-managed. Throughout the year they carry out different activities, from raffles to events and shows to gather the resources that they will use in February, when the carnival is celebrated.
In CABA, there are currently 35 parades and more than 130 murgas. Mariño highlighted: “The murgas are in a state of alert, without losing the joy and strength that characterizes us”, and concluded: “We are going to dedicate a song to them.”
For now, the delegates summoned all the Buenos Aires murgas to an extraordinary assembly for tomorrow, where they will agree on an action plan.
