Around the world for Belgrano

An ethnography on the modes of travel among Argentine football fans

Abstract

This work focuses on the itinerant experiences of members of Argentine football fans known as barras. In this case, we analyze the barra of the Atlético Belgrano de Córdoba Club in Argentina, self-named Los Piratas. The article explores the different types of trips that Los Piratas undertook during my ethnographic fieldwork between 2011 and 2019. Throughout these years, I have documented four types of organized journeys: a) neighborhood; b) provinciales; c) infiltrators; d) hosts and guests. Throughout the text, I will analyze each of them and, in the end, propose a
systematization that summarizes the importance that these travels encapsulate in the social formation process of Los Piratas and the involvement of its members I propose understanding trips as a native category, a methodological resource, and an aesthetic performance, that is, 'puestas en escena' (GOFFMAN, 2004), which have become communicative acts. These acts demonstrate, on one hand, how a 'barra' actively participates in the football ritual, and, on the other hand, how it constitutes a collective identity. If performances involve theatricalization, there is nothing better than photography as a 'dramatization of the real' (SONTAG, 1977). Consequently, the text also incorporates images of travels that were captured during my fieldwork.