Housing

The oil companies were also their workers' landlords. All housing was company owned and was assigned according to strictly applied standards according to the occupational status and family situation of the worker or employee. The assigned houses were under the complete direction of the company. If the family of a particular worker expanded, for example, the company built an addition to their house. The company also came to repaint houses every two years. All utilities such as water, electricity, and gas, the company supplied without charge. In fact, dwellings were maintained to the smallest detail, down to and including the replacement of electric light bulbs.

Housing Characteristics seen in both Private and National Company Towns

Workers: Single men lived in multi-roomed barrack-like structures, especially in the early days of the towns. Two, three, even four workers shared a room in structures constructed of wood and covered with tin or "chapa." Sanitary and laundry services were built as a separate, communal building.
Driller / Foreman: Separate buildings and better living conditions.
White Collar Employees: Single employees had indoor sanitary facilities, and only had to share rooms in the early years of their engagement. Their houses were usually made of company-produced bricks, largely made from a mixture of local sand and seashells.
Family Houses: These varied in size, design and comfort. A normal worker's house had one or two rooms and a kitchen. Neighborhoods tended to develop quickly despite the varied ethnic mix of Russian, Yugoslav, Czechoslovak, Argentine, Spanish, and Portuguese families. Many families would gather outside to escape the heat of their houses setting up tables and organizing communal meals.

Housing Situations

Housing conditions varied somewhat between company towns. For example, due to its size and an isolation that enabled virtually unobstructed growth, Astra was able to provide better accommodations. None of their workers or employees had to live out in the open, few lived in Comodoro Rivadavia, and they did not have to build their own temporary living areas in the oil fields. If housing was not immediately available, the company provided temporary housing.

Geography also influenced the layout of the company town. In Astra, the actual layout of the town is structured in a valley. The single workers lived in barracks on the north side of the valley and the supervisors, employees, doctors, and school teachers family houses and workers restaurant were located a small distance from the north side of the valley. On the other side of the valley was the employee family houses and single employee housing and restaurant. The remaining housing was situated near various areas in the oil fields, such as the distillery and power station. Family houses for workers and employees had indoor plumbing, while single workers had a sanitary area near their barracks.

Joaquín Guerreiro explains a photograph of the Astra housing
Clip
Translation

The hierarchical structure of the company towns was obvious since each group was situated in its own area of the company town. But these areas also extended to the joining of families. Below is an example that was mentioned by the group interview of Rosa and Joaquín Dias Guerreiro, José Tomé Gago, and Antonio Torres.

Divisions - Diadema

In the Diadema town, the workers and administrators housing were divided into their appropriate sections (like the other company towns). This division was impenetrable. If a worker (male) married the daughter of an employee of a lower standing, then the family of the latter could not move. They had to remain in their section of the company town.

Despite the tight social control, company housing provided a fertile environment for workers to form close relationships with others. The large immigrant population in the company towns was mixed as people settled in different areas: single workers housing, workers with families, administrators, etc.. Yet, people were also able to maintain communication, traditions, and customs with their own ethnicity.

The Companies as Landlords

The oil companies had complete control over housing. As 'landlords' they had the right to enter the worker's living quarters or families houses and search the area. Even though the companies forced many regulations on their employees, they also supplied them with all their utilities - water, electricity, and gas - free of any charge.

Elisa Babir speaks first about the utilities Astra provided, and María Cortés de Simón and Diego Simón speak about Y.P.F.
Translation:
Elisa Babir
María Cortés de Simón and Diego Simón

Celia Maria Alonso speaks about company towns from the viewpoint of those who lived in Comodoro Rivadavia.
Translation

Company control also included the appearance of the house and what was grown or raised in the yard. Families wanted to raise, pigs, goats, hens, and grow fig trees and vegetable gardens. The company, however, wanting to avoid hygenic problems too many animals would cause, kept a strict eye on such desires. And when workers did not follow the company housing rules, they lost their positions. A tidy and attractive garden was always encouraged and valued in the company town, though, as the excerpt from a company circular of 1929 below indicates.

" in many family houses gardens are very well tended, which enhances the housing and reveals the preoccupation of their inhabitants to improve the place where they live. In contrast, in some houses, the terrain for gardens are completely abandoned. This is difficult to understand because growing a garden does not mean much work and it is also a sane entertainment to spend part of the leisure time cultivating gardens...This administration recommends that all personnel to look after plantations, and residents in family houses should dedicate the necessary attention to gardens, to tend toward your well-being and contribute to the general embellishment of the company town." (cited in Torres)

A Cultural Market

The workers of the company towns were like a kaleidoscope of ethnic backgrounds. The animals and gardens belonging to each family often represented the region from where they came. The Portuguese and Spaniards raised pigs, among chickens and gardens of vegetables, and were identified with specialties of pork, such as chorizo (a type of sausage). Polish families often raised doves, ducks, chickens, and other animals. Families also would teach each other their traditional recipes and exchange skills of gardening.

Regulations

Among other regulations, the company also took notice of the housing of "paisanos" (those from the same homeland) as a potential threat to the company town. These people, who were using the facilities for a temporary period, were not employed by the company. The companies were afraid that they might cause a social problem. For example, Y.P.F. strictly stated that the housing, that included free services for the workers, was not to be taken advantage by those outside of the company. The companies also denied workers the choice of switching rooms or barracks without permission.
Making meals in the barracks was sometimes cheaper for the workers, and rules regarding the permission to cook fluctuated throughout the years. Since the companies had their own workers' restaurant, they did not want to lose money to other means of providing meals to their workers. In Astra, workers confronted the administration about the wish to cook in their own barracks and the company accepted their request. It was also common for wives of workers to cook for single workers as a means of contributing to household income.
Other rules focused on the theme of hygiene. Doors, windows and walls were expected to be kept clean, and occupants were not permitted to write or place posters on the walls. The rooms of the single workers were also entered for disinfecting and the repainting of the walls. The emphasis on cleanliness and social order can be seen in a Y.P.F. circular:

"In the coming period of hot weather, this administration wants to remind its personnel and their families.....the convenience of observing strictly...the prescriptions related to hygiene, recommending especially frequent trips to the public bathhouses. Similar recommendations are valid regarding the cleaning of houses, and especially single rooms, because it is there where the carelessness is more visible and common, and goes against the general well-being. This administration never believed that personal and housing hygienic rules would have to be imposed on those who live in the oil fields, but it is so due to the necessity of social order and because the company is obligated to the public health and collective well-being." (Cited in Torres)

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Housing Photo Gallery

Personal Account and Transcriptions

Nelly Zupanovic descibes where she lived in the Petroquimica Housing.
Two Clips:
Petroquimica Housing
Facilities
Translation:
Petroquimica Housing
Facilities

Housing Exhibit Patagonia 2001

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Source: Torres, Susana Beatriz. Two Oil Company Towns in Patagonia: European Immigrants, Class, and Ethnicity (1907-1933). Dissertation. New Brunswick , New Jersey. May 1995.