Prometheus 6

Tourists pay for 'reality' of poverty
Tours of poor Buenos Aires neighborhoods have brought paying visitors and impoverished residents face to face.
BY MEI-LING HOPGOOD
Special to The Herald

BUENOS AIRES - The tour of the poor neighborhood known as Misery Villa No. 20 began just past a steaming pile of garbage as residents sifted through it in hopes of recovering bits of cardboard to resell.

The visitors who strolled casually through the slum's dirt streets saw the carpentry shop where the young and jobless learn to make furniture, and a place across the way where 20 mothers knit sweaters to sell in local markets.

This is Argentina's version of reality tourism -- excursions where nonprofit groups, tourist agencies and even governments are increasingly offering tours of places like the poor neighborhoods in Buenos Aires and the favelas in Rio de Janeiro and even the Asian villages devastated by the tsunami last year. Universities and social organizations offer longer, more expensive tours, often focused on particular issues.

''The idea isn't to show off the poverty, but rather the cultural richness here,'' said Martin Roisi, organizer of the tour of this Buenos Aires neighborhood, one of the slums that outsiders commonly call Villas Miserias -- Misery Villas in Spanish -- and where even many Argentines would never want or dare to go.

Roisi says the tourists, who are guided by local residents, don't need to worry about their security. ''The residents are very warm,'' he said. ``They have a special humor despite all they have to endure.''

Many organizers of such tours claim they strive for educational and even international understanding, although some trips are pure money-making ventures. Often, proceeds from the tours go to schools or social programs.

Almost all promise to give tourists the chance to experience the ''real'' people, places and problems of their vacation spots.