Barrerito, childhood on the border

Barrerito is a long term documentary series that portrays a group of children on the border between Argentina and Brazil.

I visited Barrerito for the first time in 2010. A small rural area in Misiones Province, three kilometers from the coast of the Uruguay River, the border that separates Argentina from Brazil. I was 22 years old.

From the first trip I sleep in the school of the colony. A mattress in the principal's office becomes my home after five in the afternoon. With the sound of the Urutaú (ghost bird) the day ends and with the first voices of the boys who arrive early to class I wake up. A community with two languages ​​like all those that inhabit the borders. The traditions of both countries merge in this place and the boundaries dissolve in a new way that only they share.

With the kids we play, climb trees, harvest "pitangas" (Surinam cherries), we ride oxen, watch the cars that pass along the road. We cross streams on truck wheels, I watch them slaughter a cow they will later sell. The school bell rings and we walk together to their homes, eat some blackberries or medlars from the trees we find on the way. It is almost always hot and it rains. We share breakfasts, school breaks, football matches on the field.

The red soil, the humidity of the jungle. To listen to the sound of water running across the stream. The unexpected rain, always so fierceful. And then the disconcerting sun coming out again and bringing back that humid heat that goes through the wet clothes and skin and penetrates bones.

Barrerito is part of me. A distant home. In these ten years that I have been photographing them we grew up together. I taught them to take pictures and they taught me the freedom to live surrounded by nature.

Together we learned that innocence doesn't last forever.