Recreation and Activities
Outdoor Activities
**Click images for larger version**
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Martha Ebbeling Jung & Albert Friedrich Mueller Martha Jung explains how the park was an important part of the social life in Astra. "Every evening, those who were free went to the park, and they played handball...It was very beautiful then..." **Click image to view video clip** |
At the beginning of the century, during the primitive stages
of the towns' creation, recreational activities were minimal.
Oil
workers worked long days of sometimes more than ten hours, so time did
not permit to organize many activities.
The summer season provided the workers with the good weather to enjoy their moments outdoors. In Astra, "workers would take walks along the shore during summer months " The shore gave the workers the opportunity to swim. Diving became a popular sport. " Later, there was also a Sunday train that ran during the summer from the port town to various oil company towns, but unfortunately for many, the fare was rather expensive.
Because traveling anywhere was a long difficult endeavor, workers decided to build a social space closer to their homes. The park they built was designed to imitate the European parks that could not grow naturally in Patagonia. Maintaining the park became a past-time for many workers who would go to weed and trim trees as a form of relaxation and rest in the company of fellow gardeners. One worker remarked, "it was actually an effort of all the [workers]. People finished their work, rested for a while, and went to the park...All this was done voluntarily. In this way the park in Astra was built." (210)
During the summer months, hunting animals was also very
popular. Susana Torres adds in her dissertation, 
"permission
had to be requested in order to obtain arms, and still many enjoyed the
sport of catching animals such as guanacos, partridges, and ostriches."
Besides hunting and going to the beach the workers also listened to music
performed by the employees. Asados, or Argentinian barbecues were common
amongst ethnic groups, friends, and family. Sometimes, these groups also
"organized picnics in the countryside." (213)
In Astra, workers also had access to the recreational facilities at nearby estancia called La Corona. Otherwise, most of the outdoor gatherings were located in the workers' park or by the beach. One inhabitant of Astra recalls "All went on horseback or by truck, somebody brought an accordeon, and immediately dancing was organized on some flattened place. There people amused themselves healthily"(214)
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Maria de Viegas and Maria de Bordeira Two Argentinians of Portuguese descent remember the types of games they played together in the Ferrocarrilera Company town of Kilometer 8. "So we would get together, all of us. We
would play 'Fisherman Martin'...and later when we were older...we
would play with the boys and we would play 'prisoner'..." |
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Indoor Activites
Recreation in company towns took place mostly indoors, in
private homes, rooms, and other spaces." In Astra, there were fewer
social spaces and those were not open later than midnight, so many resorted
to drinking in their rooms or going to the only bar in town. (206) While
it was a known fact that workers drank heavily, "drinking did not
seem to interfere with their daily work." One worker, after admitting
to drinking " a lot of beer", quickly asserts," in the
morning we were all ready to go to work" (207). One of the most common
and popular pasttimes for both young and old residents was the cinema
and movie theater. Showing several different and new movies each week,
workers and their families often went several times a week.
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Elsa Argentina Babir de Herrera Elsa Babir, of Yugoslavian descent, testifies to the different social activities in Astra, namely the cinema. "As a child and a mischievious
one at that, I went three times a week. Saturdays, Sundays, and
Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and if not I would have a fit..." |
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Maria de Viegas and Maria de
Bordeira Maria de Viegas shares her memories about the cinema in Kilometer 8. "And every once in a while, when I liked a good movie, I would start 'Mom, let me go to the cinema with Dona Eva'...then there would be some movies, Dracula I remember..." **Click image to view video clip** |
In their little spare time, workers would get together as
often as possible in private rooms or in restaurants. Drinking was always
a favorite past-time as well as playing cards, reading together or out
loud in groups. At first the activities were mostly directed towards men,
since there was a limited amount of married workers in the oil towns.
Although gambling was illegal, playing cards for money was still done
and difficult to control. (207)
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Salomon Cuevas An interviewee recounts an anecdote about a night of gambling gone awry in Astra. "And one time, the police came and found
them, the table that they were playing with, cards, and for money...grabbed,
took out the money, and threw it..." |
Reading was a very popular leisure activity. " Workers
read from newspapers such as La Republica, El Rivadavia, El Chubut, the
Argentinisches Tageblatt. A German technical publication called Zeitschrft
des Internationalen Vereines der Bohringeniere und Bohrtechniker (journal
of the International Association of Drilling Engineers and Technicians)
as well as El Obrero Petrolifero and Luz del Obrero also circulated in
the company towns." (208) Some considered Luz del Obrero, El Obrero
Petrolero and other worker newspapers from Buenos Aires like Earth and
Liberty to be political publications that "undoubtedly fostered labor
militancy." (209) These activities, were, of course, closely supervised
and monitored by the company town.
Culinary
Culture
In bulgarian picnics,"there was an asado. The asador would cook lamb. And together we prepared the salad, the sausages, the chorizos and the lamb. That's what we ate, nothing else."(Maria Christova Minkova de Petroff)
In Kilometer 8, "We [Spaniards] made a dish that was called gachas, that is made with polenta and with tiny cornalito fish, that were cleaned one by one...we, or the immigrants, like us Andalusians, have mixed so that there are foods that one makes that come from the Italians...one would learn how to cook other foods." (Esperanza Montoya Salvador de Torres)
"The food for example in Argentina is delicious because there is a mixture of all the, of everything, because notice that all over Argentina there is, I know for example in Cordova, that there they do colectividades, the holiday like here...you go, you get together for a day, to eat with other families, and one will make aton of food that is a mixture of so many colectividades, seeing how there are so many."(Esperanza Montoya Salvador de Torres)
Rules and Regulations in the Company Towns
However, most of the workers' favorite activities weren't
to be found within the limits of the company towns. The numerous rules
intended to keep a healthy work atmosphere in these towns prohibited many
activities such as gambling, buying alcohol, and going to brothels. In
Astra " in 1919, " [laws] prohibited the consumption of all
alcoholic beverages except wine, in the workers' restaurant and only wine
and beer could be served in the Lahausen store." (206) Comparatively,
YPF expressely stated "in 1920, [that] stores, restaurants and bars
were prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages, except wine and beer."
Nevertheless, those rules were often broken. (204) I both towns the bars
also closed at midnight.
Control in the company towns was a priority in places like Astra and YPF.
"Companies felt that in order to maintain and control their labor
force they had to control workers' social relations." (202) Many
rules were implemented in order to maintain a healthy population. The
national company's rules about swimming on the coast were no exception.
Proper underpants or swimsuits were required, and the company expected
them to "maintain rules of morality and good customs" (210)
Rules were also proposed to prevent workers from getting
involved in activities independent from those of the company town. These
activities threatened the companies' control and could "foster labor
and political activities that could lead to… the spread of subversive
political ideas" (202)
As a result, "activities such as drinking and reading were especially
monitored by the companies." Reading was of special concern since
it could "involve political and labor oriented newspapers" (204)
The penalties for breaking the rules were not simple threats. These rules firmly stated, "if workers were found intoxicated, the were attested, fined, and potentially dismissed from the company." Also, since gambling was forbidden in company towns, "workers were warned they could be fired for [it] or suspended for two months" (207) Studies show that the number of arrests, incidents and offenses were few, and police remark how the consequences placed a strong incentive on workers to obey the rules and regulations of the company town.
In contrast, the port town offered oil workers unrestrained
access to the outlawed company town past-times. To the workers, Comodoro
represented a magical world of entertainment and the hub of social activities
that were forbidden in the company towns. In Comodoro the workers could
enjoy "drinking without restrictions, bordellos, bars, Carnival celebrations,
workers organization sponsored evening movies and plays, dances organized
by the ethnic institutions" and national holiday celebrations such
as those for Labor Day. (201)
Women's Social Activities
In
contrast to male worker's choice of community activities, the women's
"social life was very limited" and usually confined to the home.
(203) "Married and single women spent most of their time at home
doing household chores. (212) As a result, they were heavily involved
in leisurely family activities, and handle organizing parties in the home
for different ethnic groups or family members. For example mothers and
their daughters would often work together to prepare for birthday celebrations,
weddings, and funerals. Outside of planning family activities, women "visited
neighbors to talk or share some common activities such as sewing..."
(212)
For the children, life was one with little responsibility
or cares. The sheltered environment allowed them to play freely amongst
themselves outside often times late in the evening. Because of the lack
of technology and inventions like the television or radio, children resorted
to creative ways to pass the time together.
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Martha Ebbeling Jung Martha Jung describes her childhood and what activities characterized it. "Life for a little girl was a little bit sad, and there was only a little entertaiment, what could you do..." **Click image to view video clip** |
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Elsa Argentina Babir de Herrera Elsa Babir remembers what she would do with her girlfriends in her childhood in Astra. "We would go into the countryside,
drink mate and with the embroidery, do...a sample of crochet." |
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Women in Company Towns (link)