Who hasn’t imagined what the place they live in was like in other times? «The famous Isla Maciel» says the wall of the Ribera de Avellaneda, Buenos Aires province, which faces La Boca. The neighborhood still conserves its cobblestones, the standing tenements, and a treasured memory in the community museum that since 2014 has been working for local culture and history, social tourism, and muralism.
How did the project come about? Carla Fodor, former principal of School 24, the only secondary school in the neighborhood, says: «A student came up with the idea that we have a cultural heritage very similar to La Boca’s and that we could offer people who come to meet us to break the stigmas. And we decided to set up a Museum that would serve to continue building a socio-community network. ‘Pintó la Isla’, the mural route, also started there.»
Thus, students and teachers put everything together in a classroom at the school until the space became too small and they managed to move to where the Museum is now located.
«We have everything from doors and windows of an old bar to mates, hats, photos, cobblestones and parts of ships,» says Romina Cabañas Vargas, who joined the project in 2015. «At that time I was going through a depression because my grandmother had died and I decided to go to share with them and collaborate. They helped me get out of my anguish.»
** Today the museum holds monthly exhibitions and national and international tourists visit the Island listening to neighbors who act as guides to their own neighborhood. On weekends they use the exhibition hall to recreate a cinema for the little ones.**
«This space is important to keep the memory alive and to know what the neighborhood was like before. It’s nice to imagine what the place was like in other times. Now former neighbors who know what we do come and bring us the objects they keep with their stories. To those who don’t know, I invite them to see what Isla Maciel is like,» concludes Romina with her hands full of memories.
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