Traditions That Fragment: Past and Present of the Commemoration of Pig Iron Day in Palpalá

Abstract

The city of Palpalá had a close relationship with the former state-owned industrial complex Altos Hornos Zapla (AHZ). Every year, on October 11, the first pouring of pig iron was commemorated, marking the beginning of iron production in 1945 at that steelmaking plant. This event gave rise to a traditional celebration known as the Fiesta Nacional del Arrabio, which lasted until the company was privatized.

Among the usual events were the formal ceremony led by the company’s directors, the election of the Arrabio Queen, and the Arrabio dinner and dance. At present, this festival is no longer held; however, Pig Iron Day continued to be commemorated through events organized by different groups.

The research drew on journalistic sources and fieldwork in order to provide an approximate and comparative characterization of the different historical moments of this festival. The first difference highlighted was the homogeneous symbolic and social content of the Fiesta del Arrabio of the past. By contrast, present-day commemorative events display divergent contents and diverse connotations, ranging from remembrance marked by evocation, nostalgia, and anecdote to, in other cases, commemorations that have turned into rallies of vindication and denunciation of the damage caused by privatization and the lack of transparency in that process.

Likewise, other contemporary ritual events were identified, with diverse contents and different degrees of social participation and specificity, which would correspond to the fragmentation produced by the privatization of AHZ.