Original subtitles

This definitive version of "Throw Me a Dime!",

the first social inquiry filmed by the Institute of Cinematography of the

National University of the Littoral, has been realized in the year 1960,

with Josu� Goll�n, M.D. being the principal of the university,

Adelqui Camusso being the coordinating professor and director of photography,

Edmundo Blanco Boeri being the secretary

and Edgardo Pallero being the general head of the experimental workshop.

The actors Francisco Petrone and Mar�a Rosa Gallo collaborated,

saying the texts of the inquired people; the announcer Guillermo Cervantes Luro,

reading the prologue, the compiler Antonio Ripoll;

the sound technician Mario Fezia, re-recording in the studios

of Argentine Sound Film; the assistant director Manuel Horacio Gim�nez.

The original work in 16mm, which served as a template for this new 35mm version

was accomplished by the students: Hugo Vicente Abad et al.

Directed by Fernando Birri

Director of the Institute of Cinematography

THE INSTITUTE OF CINEMATOGRAPHY presents

its first filmed social inquiry

Santa Fe, the capital of the province of the same name,

Argentine Republic.

31 degrees South latitude

and 60 degrees latitude East.

Located at the intersection of the rivers Paran� and Salado,

at the fertile Argentine coastline.

Founded by Juan de Garay in the year 1573,

under the guiding: "gateways to the land need to be made accessible".

200.000 inhabitants, as far as today, in the year 1958,

with 5133 births in the past year.

An important agricultural and livestock centre.

With a harbor that has 3200 metres of stone bay,

with the capacity to hold forty overseas ships at once.

26 loading ramps of 1500 till 25.000 kilograms.

Barns and sheds for 250.000 tons of grain.

With an average of 115 new houses a month

and 1403 a year.

With a government palace where annually

4.525.570 pesos get used up for ink, papers and dry materials,

for 35.967 employees.

Seat of an Archbishopric, with 53 catholic churches.

With four headquarters.

With a newspaper that prints betwen 54000 and 55000 copies a night.

Seat of a university and its two faculties:

Law and Chemistry.

With 106 schools. Elementary, daycare and night schools,

factory schools and kindergartens,

where 36.055 students

use up 13.000 cases of white ink a year.

With three million breads being eaten each month.

With 32.800.000 beer glasses being emptied each year.

With a symphonic orchestra that consists of 70 fellows.

With 400 cows being skinned each day in the municipal slaughterhouse.

With 50 jewelry shops, 200 hardresser's shops for ladies, 6 museums,

80 factories, 101 labor unions with 42.034 members.

With 37 hospitals and one public assistance,

where 6.515 metres of gauze are being applied each year.

With 50 puppet theatres,

two flour millers,

4.767 street lights.

When arriving at the shores of this organized city,

as with many others, the statistics become doubtful.

There are many -how many?- far too many homesteads

in which hundreds of families from Santa Fe live.

Behind the railway station Mitre,

at the end of the street General L�pez,

there is one of these slum areas, encompassing both sides of the roads

that connect Santa Fe with Rosario and Buenos Aires,

traversing the surface of the Salado River.

Here has been filmed,

between 4 and 5 o'clock on afternoons of Spring,

Summer, Autumn and Winter of 1956, 57, 58,

the following inquiry,

which depicts the young lads begging for coins beside the train,

which, at walking pace, moves forward

on this bridge with a length of two kilometres.

Come on, man! Bring me that bunting!

They give us a peso for that bird,

at times 1,50, one of the boys tells us.

Two sparrows for one peso.

The other day I caught a bird that I sold for five pesos., another one says.

I worked in a bakery, they paid me 3,50 a day., says another.

Each passing "Throw a Dime" we make one peso.

The ones we run with, the other we don't.

It's a lot of money.

There is also a "Throw Fifty", you know? The one that comes from Buenos Aires.

At times, when a freight train passes, we climb on the roof,

and if we can, we withdraw coal.

After that we sell it to the blacksmith.

On other days we withdraw oatmeal.

Mister, mister...

Yesterday Penguin impersonated a lame, so that they would throw more.

Do you know why they call him Penguin?

Because once a duck landed on the Lake Salado and he yelled:

"Look, I caught a penguin!", Polaquita tells us.

My name is Pedro.

And all these are my brothers. They are many.

And another one adds:

In one room there sleep like a thousand minus one.

My name is Tito., says �ngela Echag�e's son.

I help my mother selling pies.

I'm going to deliver the basket.

I manage as well I can.

I make breads and pies in order to feed my children.

My name is �ngela Echag�e,

I'm 29 years old.

It's as if I were 40!

If you ask for something, they won't give it to you.

If you steal something, they imprison you.

If you work, they criticize you.

And in the end: How is one supposed to live?

When I didn't work as a servant, I was a housemaid,

when not that, I was a kitchen helper.

I could never own anything. Look, now I have even less than before.

The other day they came to inform me that I could work if I wanted to,

but half a day, without the child.

And where am I supposed to leave the child?

They charge me 20 pesos to look after my child for half a day.

20 pesos!

When I earn something, it's at most nine or ten pesos a day.

Here, in my line of work, I spend ten pesos

beside what I owe for the yeast that I get from the bakery,

I also owe money for other things.

Go figure! I can't work without making any profit.

Even if it's just five or seven pesos that I make.

That's already a help for buying food, isn't it?

And if Enrique earns well delivering newspapers,

he can bring me 10, 12, 15 pesos.

Yesterday he was stuck with all the newspapers,

with the prints.

Before that he used to go to the "Throw a Dime".

With that help... it's also a help. You know?

Even if you may not believe it,

but many people can eat due to the money from the "Throw a Dime"."

And I do these little woodworks to keep going.

Juan Esquivel tells us.

I'm a construction worker,

but right now here is Santa Fe

we're living through very sad times,

because one can't get a job.

And furthermore the scarcity began to discipline our lives.

They go to the "Throw a Dime".

When they don't go to school, they go to the "Throw a Dime".

Little by little, they can buy exercise books and pencils.

They buy it with the money they earn at the "Throw a Dime".

At least I got my wife.

One day she told me: Do you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to sell vegetables.

And she set up a sign saying: "VEGETABLES FOR SALE"."

And we manage more or less., Carmen adds.

Worse than before, because things are very expensive now.

For instance, potatoes now cost a fortune.

One has to pay more than 100 pesos for a potato.

The end of the month arrived and all went to pay the passbook.

And sometimes there were ten or twelve passbooks.

Some of them to pay in pesos.

Now there are also passbooks, but sometimes, at the end of the month,

they have to knock on the doors to see if they can charge.

We're willing to work,

as long as they don't want to exploit us.

We who built the highest buildings in city,

can't even raise a homestead.

Balbina and Mart�n Arcel say.

- Hurry up, old man. Tomorrow we... - Yes, we need to deliver.

Tomorrow morning at 6 AM, the newspaper El Litoral,

10 kilos for 5 pesos.

I used to bring along small towels...

Ah, well! I no longer bring them along,

but if you want big and good towels, you should go to Gath & Chaves.

You can go and buy sheets there.

And now you're kidding me.

They call me Chilean and I'm 14 years old.

I went to school till the first elementary instruction.

They threw me out because I were absent.

And because I prefer to play soccer.

I can write mum, boy, father and girl.

Before they used to teach everything at school. Now they don't.

Now they only teach calculation.

At night, when I lay down, I turn on the light and read the newspaper.

I read "Ramonita" and the articles about theft.

His brother tells us:

My name is Vicente and I don't go to school.

Carlitos' grandfather tells us:

Here it's better for me than at the hospital.

And if there's no money to buy medicine, then weeds will do.

It works out. If not, then one dies.

My name is Antonio Alegre, I'm 75 years old.

I get a compensation of 100 pesos for my old age.

The pension? We've been waiting for it for six years.

I'm the first one, because I've been here for twelve years.

The day we arrived I immediately made the watering hole.

It's better than water from the faucet.

The water pours from here to there.

During summer we more or less manage.

But in June/July when the river rises,

one has to roll up one's trousers till the knees.

Before I sold fish, but I no longer can,

because I'm sick. So why ruining my health even more?

I've been having a lung disease for six years... no, for eight years.

And my hand and foot are diabled, Sir.

One of her hand is paralysed�

This one is paralysised.

I have no strength in the hand. And the same with this foot.

She worked at the hardware store, and I caught a cold in summer.

A heat that was unbearable,

and after that a cold wind blew, and I caught a cold.

The next day I was unable to talk.

The little girls has some measles, Sir.

She had, right? And lots of coughing. She has a bad cold.

As for her appetite, she almost doesn't want to eat my food.

Frankly, I'm ashamed,

but I need to go out and beg. Frankly,

because one day there's a lack of sugar, a lack of milk... what should I do?

Sometimes they donate, sometimes they don't. That's how it is.

- They give food, soup... - Stew...

- Stew. For the two of them.

And after that night a mate tea. A warm mate tea with bread, or warm mate tea.

And beside that? Just bearing up! As long as God wills.

Look, they like to go to the "Throw a Dime", but I don't like it.

Those children are always here, at my house.

But since I can't control them...

They have their parents and the parents like it,

or, to be more comfortable, they send the children out and they leave.

Well, here they call me Lady Lola.

I've been here for fifteen years. And I'm pleased, because I make progress.

I started out being very poor,

and today I'm on the same level as any other woman.

I have many kinds of animals.

I own hotels and guesthouses in many parts.

I have "The Furnaces", a North American society,

and they produce lots of garbage.

In the end we also collect the papers.

The papers, the glass, the bones and all that.

My sons and a helper take care of all that.

I own three cars. I have also driven them.

During winter it's nice, but during summer

I would switch with anyone, because of the flies that are around here.

They are neighbors, just neighbors.

They come by whenever they want to, because they come by and take away.

At times there are candies, sweets. Things like that.

And then there are also clothes.

But at times we're all here together, eating,

we're all eating.

And then the car brings along many such things

for the children. Playthings.

And this Martin� is the biggest bum around here.

He's a good boy, with a good heart.

And now he's a boy who works.

He drives in one of my cars.

That's a zone where there exists nothing but sacrifice. Look.

And the water for the fields has drained. But no, they abandoned it.

There is no more direct water.

Some gets poured here, some gets poured there.

And it's steadily getting worse for those who live here.

It's all lies of the government.

And they carry on, because here you find many bad examples.

And today I need to wash.

There are two towels and three underpants, a combination and a pillow.

My name is Francisca Mart�nez

I make a living doing the laundry, and they pay me 4 pesos for a sheet.

The girl is called Mar�a Elena Mart�nez.

She is 15 years old.

I'm washing mangel., Mar�a Elena explains.

For my mum to make dessert.

Mrs. Francisca confirms:

And she helps me with all the daily tasks in the house.

Antonio is called Antonio Ra�l. And he makes the errands for me.

I couldn't go to school, because we were on the fields.

He also doesn't go to school because

there were no more forms when I went to inscribe him.

He's 12 years old.

And Julio didn't go to school because he had to work.

He's 16 years old.

I don't go to the "Throw a Dime" because I'm already too big.

I make pits.

I'm going to make cesspits with Alejandro, with the shovel.

I haven't heard from him for a long while.

And this boy is in Buenos Aires.

He's working.

He went a bit blind, but now he can see better.

He's working as a dyer.

The acid splashed into his eyes and he became blind.

He can't see that well. But he can see.

And I got hold of the little boy when he was three month old.

And when they took him away from me, he was one year and nine months old.

That's another one. But it was the same mother who paid me.

She was called Lidia, and they paid me well.

They paid me 50 pesos a week.

And here we are tugging and toiling, fighting to make a living.

Making some rings,

Alejandro Sosa lets us know.

I do this job to provide for my children,

and to provide for myself.

And that's a soft material, a plastic material.

Toothbrushes, do you see any of them here?

I trim them, I prepare them, I make them as they ask me to.

With names, with pictures.

She also works. Now she washes, she irons.

I don't want her to work a lot, because of her back.

I don't want her to ruin her back.

And she gives the breast to the little girl. Thus I don't want her to leave.

Yes, I work to help my husband,

and, at times, in order to buy bread for my children.

I built and assembled the homestead you see here.

And at the moment I'm making another one, by means of sacrifices.

Because this one is completely crumbling.

And it doesn't make sense to have the children and the adults sleep

all together in one single room.

And I'm going to make a little kitchen, because without that it's not possible,

there's smoke piling up everywhere.

It's mostly for the children.

And they keep ruining the few clothes one owns.

And here we are many.

There are the five children and we, the adults.

Two of them aren't mine.

And for me they are, go figure, a part of my own blood,

since the moment I got hold of them when they were small,

because I felt sorry for them.

These innocent, naked children, with cold and hunger.

And what is more, with the very strength of my hands,

I can give them what they need to go on living.

Once day they may remember that I wasn't their father,

but at the same time I was a father for them.

The biggest one got rejected by the school,

for I sent him to go there.

Because they need it more than I do.

And I want them to learn, but they rejected him,

because of the blow the boy received.

Since the train hit him, he remained without teeth,

and they won't accept him without teeth.

And they won't believe that he's fine.

There are days when I notice him being air-headed.

As a small boy he was a nervous pillet!

Here in the neighborhood we're all poor.

Many want to have a ring,

thus I also have to earn a peso.

I was born in Corrientes.

The land of the chamam�.

Let them sing lovingly.

And let them dance with pleasure.

Right now in Buenos Aires...

My name is Mar�a Luisa Castillo, I'm 14 years old.

I went to school for 4 years.

And after that I no longer went, because I had a fight with a girl.

and then I hurt her mouth, and I grasped and left.

...fringe of gold

And northern stars

- Throw a dime, say! - Throw a dime, say. Throw a dime, say!

- Say, throw a dime, say. - Say, throw a dime, say.

- Throw a dime, say! Say, throw a dime! - Throw a dime, say!

Throw a dime, throw a dime, say!

Throw a dime, say, throw a dime!

Throw a dime,...

Poor ones!

Throw a dime, say...

Say, throw a dime. Throw a dime, say. Say, throw a dime...

Throw a dime, say, throw a dime...

Throw a dime, say, throw a dime, say!

Look, what a misery!

These people live like that because they don't want to work.

Throw a dime, say, throw a dime!

Throw a dime...

- Throw a dime, say. - Say... throw a dime.

The flagman Petinelli informs us:

I've been here for a while. It's always the same with the boys.

The police catches them, but they return anhow.

The boys are very poised, but at times,

the bridge finishes and from there to the ground it's six metres.

They know the trains by the numbers and come here to annoy.

Asking for the 29, asking for the 33...

Others watch out for the signs,

they recognize the trains with their eyes and ears.

I'm going down to buy mandarins, man. - Conito shouts at us.

Carlos Mendieta tells us: - Today is the day of the big money...

I'm a bricklayer, and since we don't work,

because it rained today, I came here.

At times one doesn't get anything.

At times 60, 80 cents, at times more.

When Col�n won in Rosario they threw 10 pesos.

I'm six years old.

I'm giving the coins to my father.

If not he beats me up, Rosa Paulina tells us.

And Cucho Calder�n:

- I'm going to the cinema Dor� to see "The Desert Eagle"

I like the films with Indians and cowboys,

because there are fights and shootings.

We ask Juan Carlos Aguirre:

- What do you do with the coins? - I give them to my mother.

- And your father? - I don't have a father.

- How old are you? - 11

- Do you go to school? - No

- Do you work? - No

- Did you catch a lot today? - Two and twenty.

The small lighthose in the street where I was born

was the guard post of my promises of love,

under its calm I saw her,

my young one, as luminous as the sun.

If luck will have it, I will see you again today,

They call me little frog, because I'm fierce and mangy.

...I hear the sound of a bandoneon,

within my chest, the heart restrains its yearning.

My Buenos Aires, flowering land,

where my life will end...

The little frog hands out the coins,

or buys bread, his mother tells us.

Because I accustomed him to that, for him to save it up.

I won't let him waste the money.

No, this one still doesn't go to the "Throw a Dime".

He's still far too small to go to the "Throw a Dime".

...when evoking you

the sorrows of the heart go away.

The little window to my suburb's street,

where a flowering girl smiles,

I once again want to contemplate

these eyes which I cherish to look at.