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DEFENSA 1464

By David RUBIO ROMAN

Documentary - Completed 2008

In the 19th century, Argentina, a country which is now predominantly white, used to have a large afro-descendant population due to the flourishing slave trade in Buenos Aires port. What happened to this community and its heritage?

- Year of production
- 2008
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- ARGENTINA, ECUADOR
- Languages
- SPANISH
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- David RUBIO ROMAN
- Writer(s)
- David RUBIO ROMAN
- Cast
- Alba CANGA, Antonio LUIS, Elida OVELLA, Freda MONTAÑO, Rita MONTERO
- Producer(s)
- Nicolas BATLLE (Magoya Films), Paul VENEGAS (Xanadu)
- Synopsis
- “ENLIGHT THERE, WHERE THE ANSWERS ARE HIDDEN”
  15 years ago… Freda, an afro descendent from the ecuadorian coast, migrated to Argentina and founded with no economic resources a cultural center in the street Defensa 1464, which became the most important afro referent in Buenos Aires, a city where it’s said there are no blacks. Two years passed and the bad shape of the house left the cultural center without electricity, forcing her to subsist with two car batteries and candles, meanwhile keeping this initiative running. While trying to repair the electrical connections in the basement, they found a tunnel system that allegedly was used by the African slaves in the XVIII century. Paradoxically, the owner of the building received an offer to sell the house and asked her to evacuate the place. Freda in order to preserve this tangible evidence, initiated a campaign to turn those living quarters into a museum of Afro-Argentinean history, nevertheless, she ended up being evicted and in the streets empty handed.
  What happened with the afro-descendent population that in the 1800´s reached as much as 35% of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires? Where is their heritage? Through the universal and intimate human drama of Freda, we will meet the Afro Argentinean population and their struggle to reinvindicate their history in the creation of this country. The joy and music in the every day life of these characters takes us to a buried past unknown to the majority. Today, the house remains empty and Freda’s struggle to regain it continues.
  In order to understand our present is essential to know our past… all of it