The Politics of Everyday Subversion: Crisis, COVID-19, and Coming-of-Age in Córdoba, Argentina

This thesis seeks to explore the impact of converging political, economic, and public health crises in Córdoba, Argentina in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on youth and practices of protest and resistance. Utilizing interviews, participant observations and ethnographic data in addition to economic and public health statistics, media coverage, and government statements I establish the basis and context for this triple crisis, as well as the tactics appropriated to criticize the government and expression disillusionment — protests and subversion. Despite modifications to public health concerns, the Argentine democratic tradition of protesting returned against government wishes, and became a canvas of expression for new subversive meanings to enhance movement messages. Protests also became a place to express local culture and youth subculture, as young people appropriated private and public spaces to recreate cultural practices in an attempt to rebuild a sense of normalcy. Cognizant of the nuance and complexities of pandemic management, young people sought not to rebel and topple the government, but rather entered a state of self-governance, choosing to undermine government protocols they deemed unnecessary to return themselves to a sense of normalcy the government had failed to, and to reconstruct a semblance of the future that has been dismantled by the ensuing triple crisis