Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.02.2007, Blaðsíða 6

10_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 0_007_MUSIC/TRAGEDY
Concert disaster is a good chance to under-
stand a little of Argentina
The main concept of tourism for young peo-
ple in Brazil is the search for cheap places
that are completely different from the typi-
cal national identity. This New Year’s holiday
I thought it would be perfect to fly to Buenos
Aires, a city that feels European, filled with
beautiful people, good food and cheap cur-
rency (thanks to our über-valorized reais). It
was also the anniversary of the tragedy at
Plaza Once, where 194 died (including ba-
bies, one of them only ten months old) and
714 were injured in a fire in República de
Cromañón, one of the five biggest night-
clubs in Buenos Aires. Two years after the
second biggest non-natural disaster in Ar-
gentina, Plaza Once is as much alive as it has
ever been with protests, marches and shouts
for justice on the “porteño” streets.
On a still night on December 30, 2004,
the band Callejeros (Spanish for “streetwise”)
were playing at the República de Cromañón
nightclub for an audience of 3000 people,
when a pyrotechnic flare set fire to a plastic-
net roof. The panic spread while a huge toxic
black cloud formed. Most victims died from
asphyxia and burning of respiratory organs
by carbon monoxide and cianidric acid. Oth-
ers died from burns and from being crushed
in the middle of the choas, some of them
having come back into the club to rescue
friends. The official capacity of Cromañón
was 1300 people, and four of the six emer-
gency doors were locked with padlocks so
attendants couldn’t come in without paying.
In Argentina, flares have always been
used in rock concerts, just as much as in
soccer matches, with the same passion and
cathartic intensity. The fact that the person
responsible for lighting the flare has never
been found is not the most tragic aspect of
this episode. It is the neglect that is fright-
ening: the old brown classic building didn’t
have exterior ventilation; ten of the fifteen
fire-extinguishers were not pressurized; the
club’s fire inspection certificate had expired
two years before; and the exterior roof in-
tended for expelling toxic air was covered
with two soccer fields (!). Among the dead
were a few children of the employees, who
took their kids to the place because it was a
holiday.
Punishment
Osmar Chabán, Cromañón’s owner, was im-
mediately accused. A famous local promoter
and stage person since the 80s, he helped
shape the Buenos Aires rock scene as it is to-
day: hard guitars in pop tracks, extreme com-
petition among the bands and huge concerts
with pyrotechnics. While Chabán has been
jumping from prison to prison for the past
two years, investigators have found ghost
companies created by Chabán, intended to
clean up dirty money. So far, he is the only
one who has been arrested in relation to the
incident. There are 17 more people awaiting
trial in early 2008, including the band mem-
bers.
The investigations lead to the resigna-
tion of Aníbal Ibarra, mayor of Buenos Aires,
mainly because of his suspected links with
Chabán and for not attending to any of the
40 alerts about the awful situation in several
Buenos Aires venues, including Cromañón.
Anibal and Chabán are the two main vil-
lains called “¡ASESINOS!” (murderers) in all
marches, including the recent two-year an-
niversary protest in Plaza de Mayo.
A judge accused the Callejeros of “the
promotion of pyrotechnics with absolute
disrespect for physical health of its fans”.
They deny all charges but some witnesses
have said that they wanted fire that night,
even helping people to get into Cromañón
through backdoors, far from the security.
Others say that three little kids ignited the
flare, some claim it was the stage assistant.
The truth will probably never be known.
In the wake of the tragedy, all clubs and
stages in Buenos Aires were closed and they
could only be reopened when proper docu-
mentation and new safety and fire systems
were in place. It took months for the city to
get its musical scene back, and people start-
ed travelling on weekends to other cities in
Buenos Aires province, such as Mar del Plata,
to party.

District Rock
I watched a retrospective about Cromañón
on a local TV news station. In an interview
with the TV station, a young rocker said that
he and some friends would fight against
the restriction of fires at concerts, because
“it was part of a culture”. Argentines are
as attached to their traditions as they are
to good wine and barbecues. The rock au-
dience behaviour can, in some ways, be
compared with soccer hooligans. The bands
come from the suburbs, bringing with them
young neighbours supporting the guys who
grew up in the same distant area, loving only
THAT band, and no other. It is district rock,
something that conservatives would even
call “gangs”. Callejeros came from the poor
Villa Celina. While they have been chastised
for being opportunistic and irresponsible,
they are also, somehow, victims of the fire:
the singer lost his fiancée and the guitarist
four relatives.
In 2005, any intentions for the band’s
comeback were ruined by a noisy protest by
an association of victims’ families. The band
members are often called murderers and at-
tacked on the streets. Furthermore, no man-
ager or promoter wants the “fire band” in
their venue. It was only in July 2006 that they
returned to the stage, as guests of a famous
band they were friends with. The rock crowd
remain the staunchest supporters of Calleje-
ros, including the music media. “It was the
biggest penal discussion in Argentina’s his-
tory but some tried to divert it to the rock
field: to its musicians, audience, and media”,
said the last Argentinian edition of the Roll-
ing Stone, with a huge six-page-interview
with Chabán.

Sanctuary
The Cromañón ashes are now a perfect ve-
hicle for a foreigner to comprehend the Ar-
gentinian soul. A sanctuary was built close to
the venue for the victims with chairs, post-
ers, homages and altars. People come there
to pray, cry, remember, think and leave per-
sonal belongings, letters, gifts and the like
(a mother left a pack of Marlboro close her
son’s picture). The space functions as a per-
manent cemetery where people can express
not only their views, but mainly their sad-
ness. A cop told me it’s common for people
who are sad for any reason to go there to
sit and cry, seeking solace in the company
of the victim’s families and sensible “b-side”
tourists. It’s almost impossible not to feel
depressed visiting the space, and the way
Argentines deal with the loss and the sad-
ness is almost poetic. It is not by chance they
have the tango and the highest number of
psychologists per capita in the world.
In the building, protest paintings, post-
ers and lots of burnt Converse All-Stars hang
on a rope, the official symbol of the tragedy.
The text “Los Pibes Solo Querian a el Rock”
(The people only wanted to rock) inscribed
on several of them makes this “symbol” look
like a morbid art installation. Another sym-
bol of Cromañón is a sign with “Prohibido
Olvidar” (Never Forget), that made me think
about Brazil. Rather than glamourizing sad-
ness, Argentina really preserves what hap-
pens in its history. The cliché aphorism about
us Brazilians, “Brazil has no memory”, is
sometimes true: a plane crashed here a few
months ago killing 150 people and we don’t
even know if they have families mourning
them! It’s the price we pay for being “the
Latin-American country of the future!” – we
end up without a past.
When I left the Cromañón sanctuary, I
noticed one more sign that serves as a final
note on this travesty. A hundred metres from
the venue, a huge advertisement, the only
coloured thing in Plaza Once, reads: FUEGOS
ARTIFICIALES JÚPITER (Júpiter Pyrotechnics).
It is stupidly ironic, if not sad.
Jade Augusto Gola is the asst. editor of
www.rraurl.com in São Paulo, Brazil
194 Young People Who Just Wanted to Rock
Text and photo by Jade Augusto Gola
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