Barrio La Boca and the Eloisa Cartonera

Another image of La Boca neighborhood. Buenos Aires.

Second time lucky....Spent a fabulous afternoon on Wednesday with the Eloisa Cartonera!! Yay, they were open, i had my plea for volunteer work written in Spanish and checked by one of the teachers at work and started talking, and Alejandro said try English....and i was so ready with my small Spanish request...anyway, I was in. I met Ricardo who was sharing his birthday cake with everyone, Carmen, and about three others who wandered passed and popped in.
I was so happy. Kept pinching myself to make sure i wasn't dreaming.
They are a small, grass roots publishing group. Cooperativa editorial; check out their website and colourful books. They publish Latin American writers and poets on an old printing press, staple them into cardboard covers that they buy off the cardboard pickers and sell the books at political rallies and fiestas etc.
So while munching on birthday cake and sipping mate tea with them all, i painted eight covers for their books, and watched all the excitement going on. Their premises are beside the Boca Stadium, and a big match was to be played that night. The Boca juniors and some other team. There was riot police with flak jackets, guns and big sticks, blue barricades around the streets, a heavy police escort with sirens blaring as the rival team in a big bus were escorted to the venue. It was all terribly exciting!
 I was given big hugs from them when i left, and wandered down to the bus stop with paint over my fingers and a big grin on my face. This is the life eh.