museo textil

last wednesday we took our first fieldtrip. actually we took two field trips last wednesday. in the morning, before classes started, we all had to make our way to the paraguayan consulate and pick up our passports. it was almost as fun of actually going to paraguay...

then we had a little bit of spanish class, after that we went to a shut down textil factory which now functions as a museaum. in the 1930s and 1940s argentina, like many other developing nations in latin america and asia subscribed to a policy called Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI). This meant that instead of continuing to spend a lot of money importing mostlyof the processed goods and exporting mostly raw materials, the country would try to process their own goods. the textile factory that we went to was very representative of the time period. however in 1976 the thinking changed more towards a neoliberal attitude, and factories built during ISI were shut down.

so we went to what was at one point a textile factory, we saw all the equipment that they used to make the fabrics. we saw the yarns, the machinery, the archives and documents. we got to sit in their dining hall. scattered throughout the factory were various slogans encouraging loyalty to the company and quality work.

next week were going to a fabrica recuperado (recovered factory) i dont know very much abou this yet but from what i understand it is the next phase in the lifecycle of these factories. once they were shut down, in some cases, the employees revived the factories, without a boss or a leader. they ran the factory democratically and split all of the profits.