Ethnicity and Occupation
Astra Astra originated as
a German oil company town just outside of Commodoro and naturally had a
higher percentage of German workers compared to Y.P.F. From the beginning
all the highly trained workers tended to be German or Austrian. These Germans
held positions just as drilling boses and foremans. It is not clear however,
if the administration at Astra preferred some ethnic groups over the other,
but the company was inclined to hire Central Europeans than any other
ethnic group. On the contrary Spanish workers outnumbered German workers
in lower leveled positions, such as peons.
"Und auf der Astra waren natürlich viele
Deutsche - sehr viele! Man konnte beinahe sagen, das war eine deutsche Kolonie.
... Und dann waren immer die Deutschen die Chefs."[There were naturally
many Germans at Astra and could be called a Germany "colony". The Germans
were always the bosses.]
Martha Jung, first person born at Astra, 1/18/01
Martha Jung, first person born at Astra, 1/18/01
| (picture unavailable) |
Afra Lenzer, lived at Astra, comments on the
ethnicity at Astra. Video Clip 1/17/2003 |
Astra was a...a...a..so many foreigners. Workers and all races yeah. It began with Polish, with Russian, with Czechs, German too but many, many, many foreigners.
Afra Lenzer
Y.P.F.
Y.P.F had its own hiring practices
as well, however the company even though called the "national company" avoided
hiring native Argentines who had not completed the required military service.
This only reflected the general feeling regarding ethnic diversity in the
area of European over Argentine. The Europeans hired, though, worked
in very dangerous conditions. As time went on, however, Y.P.F. began to
hire more native Argentines.
Perspective workers walked miles before finally arriving at a company that could hire them. One worker spoke of wearing out two pairs of shoes from walking to all the major oil companies such as Astra and Diareama until he finally found work at Y.P.F. For the hiring process, foreigners waited outside the Y.P.F. central administration building in Km3 until the company decided that they need extra workers for the day. Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans workers did not have to wait long for a job because the company favored them over other ethnicities similar to Astra's preference for ethnic Germans.
One example of ethnicity determing occupation is in the case of who worked on creating the towers for the oil. According to one interview, Bulgarians, Polish and those from Eastern Europe, were considered by Y.P.F. to be stronger than other ethnicities and could handle working on the more strenous aspects of the oil industry. They worked especially on the creation of the towers, one of the most dangerous jobs at the company town.
"When people like my father came that were foreigners mmm there was a tower, and the tower is the structure that is used to make the hole and loof for petroleum. In that time it made out of wood there was no metal towers so, and there was not big equipments like machines, they would make the hole, they would get together 4,5 or 10 people and with sticks they would start walking in a circle until the make a drill, the wells would had like 150 meters more or less, later it went to 3000 meters to make the wells to be able to find petroleum but they beging was like that, and so when a foreigner came they first made him get up in the tower, and the tower so the wind made it fall to the floor it had steel cables and so they would made them go up the stair and that the would jump with the cable, if they did pass that, they would even send them, because in that time tubercolosis was more common alkie now we talk about aids. The ingress to YPF, the part of the foreigners was always the hardest part of the work, they took them to the perforation area where they had to work in the oil tanks, very rough things that had to be done that was, here it was teh call the gringos, the ones that came from Europe where the gringos for the people from here, the Argentines, the gringos from sun to sun they were not interested to put the physic the body to work. "
Juan Ivanoff recollects his fathers's experience at Y.P.F. 1/12/01
Perspective workers walked miles before finally arriving at a company that could hire them. One worker spoke of wearing out two pairs of shoes from walking to all the major oil companies such as Astra and Diareama until he finally found work at Y.P.F. For the hiring process, foreigners waited outside the Y.P.F. central administration building in Km3 until the company decided that they need extra workers for the day. Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans workers did not have to wait long for a job because the company favored them over other ethnicities similar to Astra's preference for ethnic Germans.
"the majority European at the beginning and
then a lot of provincialist from the interior of Argentina,..."
Juan Ivanoff 1/12/01
Juan Ivanoff 1/12/01
One example of ethnicity determing occupation is in the case of who worked on creating the towers for the oil. According to one interview, Bulgarians, Polish and those from Eastern Europe, were considered by Y.P.F. to be stronger than other ethnicities and could handle working on the more strenous aspects of the oil industry. They worked especially on the creation of the towers, one of the most dangerous jobs at the company town.
"When people like my father came that were foreigners mmm there was a tower, and the tower is the structure that is used to make the hole and loof for petroleum. In that time it made out of wood there was no metal towers so, and there was not big equipments like machines, they would make the hole, they would get together 4,5 or 10 people and with sticks they would start walking in a circle until the make a drill, the wells would had like 150 meters more or less, later it went to 3000 meters to make the wells to be able to find petroleum but they beging was like that, and so when a foreigner came they first made him get up in the tower, and the tower so the wind made it fall to the floor it had steel cables and so they would made them go up the stair and that the would jump with the cable, if they did pass that, they would even send them, because in that time tubercolosis was more common alkie now we talk about aids. The ingress to YPF, the part of the foreigners was always the hardest part of the work, they took them to the perforation area where they had to work in the oil tanks, very rough things that had to be done that was, here it was teh call the gringos, the ones that came from Europe where the gringos for the people from here, the Argentines, the gringos from sun to sun they were not interested to put the physic the body to work. "
Juan Ivanoff recollects his fathers's experience at Y.P.F. 1/12/01
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Ivo Svoboda
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"Pure foreigners, everybody
talked their language."
Ivanka Petakova de Stancheff 1/17/01
Bulgrian worker at Y.P.F.
Bulgrian worker at Y.P.F.
During the 1940s however, both
companies began a shift towards Argentinaztion of the workforce. This occurred
at the same time that Juan Peron came to power in Argentina. The relationship
between workers and bosses and ethnicities, changed greatly towards a level
of equalization.