“Para cambiar
la historia”
November 10, 2023
Image 1: A worker takes a breather while constructing a wooden roof for a toolshed. Frente de Izquierda posters dominated this part of Buenos Aires near Barrio Playón and the Chacarita train tracks.
BUENOS AIRES — At the end of 2023, I found myself in Argentina, waiting for customs to clear a package with documents I needed to to renew my Brazilian visa.
The first few weeks passed, working and reading the Gabriel García Márquez classic El colonel no tiene quien le escriba. For the the next few weeks, I was in limbo.
Feeling restless, I wandered, and my eyes were drawn by the many stickers, posters, and hand-made drawings advertising (or denigrating) the presidential and gubernatorial candidates.
Massa, Axel, Macri, Bullrich, Chiaretti, Bregman, Milei; names, faces, slogans. “Derecho, Futuro.” “Tenemos con quién. Tenemos con qué.” “Vayamos por mas.” “Para hacer un país normal.”
“Para cambiar la historia.”
Javier Milei—his slogan, his cult of personality, his brand of libertarianism, his populism—would go on to win the election in a runoff against former Minister of the Economy Sergio Massa.
I decided that, with only a few days to go until a pivotal Argentinian election, I would try to document some of the street ads.
Image 2: To the right of an “UP” Axel ad, a sliver of Myriam Bregman’s (Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas-PTS, Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores — Unidad) face is seen peeking out from under a poster advertising a new sci-fi movie.
Image 3: A young man covers an Axel Kicillof (Judicialist) advertisement with a Jorge Macri (PRO, Juntos por el Cambio alliance) poster. Environment and colors are typical of downtown Palermo.
Image 4: The same scene; the torn poster receiving a layer of poster glue needs to be replaced because Jorge Macri’s likeness has been covered by a small, third-party sticker.
Image 5: Jorge Macri’s (Juntos por el Cambio) likeness looks down on passers-by in a not-unfatherly way. See the plea for “more technology”, whatever that means.
Image 6: A cook takes a smoke break next to one of the many Massa/Axel posters that’s been partially or completely destroyed by passers-by.
Image 7: Juan Schiaretti and Florencio Randazzo seen from a crossing. What is a “normal country”?
Image 8: A Javier Milei (Partido Libertario) advertisement (two, if you look closely), glued to a street sign in the Palermo neighborhood. Notably, this tiny sticker is the only pro-Milei street propaganda we found in the center of Buenos Aires.