KEY POINTS:
With no front teeth, Pacotillo is an unlikely radio sensation. And his patter with members of his on-air posse sounds more like a group therapy session than a Saturday show. But then the broadcast is coming from the inside of a Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital. And it is called La Colifata or Loony Radio.
Thousands of patients at the Jose Borda hospital have picked up the microphone and taken part in this radio show since it started in 1991. They read poetry, discuss sports, music and politics, interview guests or simply sing a song. And millions of Argentines tune in to it each weekend to hear their wit and wisdom.
Now this national institution is under threat. Mauricio Macri, the Mayor of Buenos Aires, recently presented a new health plan under which the city's psychiatric institutions would disappear within two years. They would be replaced by what he described as more modern answers to mental health treatment such as halfway homes.
The announcement has spread uncertainty among patients and staff at Jose Borda. They agree the system needs updating and that there should be more effort made to integrate patients into society. But that's what the weekly radio broadcasts do.
La Colifata was the brainchild of Alfredo Olivera. As a teenage hospital volunteer, it occurred to him to tape interviews on topical issues with the patients and broadcast them on a friend's radio show.
"The idea was to give a voice to a part of society that has been classified as ill and marginalised," he said. The listeners' response was overwhelmingly positive.
"They were surprised that the things that were being said were so interesting," he said. "The fact that these people expressed themselves in unusual ways and perhaps with more difficulty, only added to listeners' appreciation."
Within no time La Colifata was reaching an audience of some 12 million listeners, who tuned in every week to hear their favourite colifato, as the presenters called themselves.
At a recent Saturday recording, the radio hosts calmly discussed the looming closure of the decrepit monolithic building from which they broadcast.
There is anger among the hospital's staff and patients at the mayor's unilateral decision to tear down the building, but they remain hopeful.
"For now, we're confident some solution will be found," said former patient Hugo Lopez, a veteran presenter of the show. "Our final goal is to rid the world of nut-houses. You should know that people on the outside are just as crazy as us loonies in here."
- INDEPENDENT
