A flyer outside our building reads: Inter-neighborhood meeting: This is to inform you that today, Dec. 9, we’re calling a meeting about the taking of Parque Indoamericano. Your presence is needed in defense of the public space at Plaza Calabria at Escalada and Castañares. Photo: Kate Sedgwick
Displaced residents of Villa 20 who were forced from their homes took over Parque Indoamericano on Tuesday. Villa 20 is a slum built by the residents (some 21,000 of them as of 2007, according to a government document) who technically have no legal right to be there. They are basically squatters who build their own homes, and the villas are cities unto themselves, mostly full of immigrants from poorer nations like Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru.