Kantuta is the name of the square located in the Pari district of São Paulo, where Bolivian immigrants hold a street market. An ephemeral territory. And these immigrants subject themselves to an equally precarious type of labour.

Territorial mobility as a strategy for economic and social mobility? But to find work in this city, the Bolivians have to abide by the rules imposed by their corresponding segment of the market: small sweatshops which supply retail clothing networks. A textile chain characterised by the circularity of the workforce and the deregulation of labour relations: as employees in an irregular situation, without documents, immigrants can work long days of up to 17 hours in dreadful conditions on run-down premises (where they invariably live). In this universe, the Bolivian workers resettle in a way that is at odds with their surroundings, and marked as much by the “invisibility” of the clandestine immigrant as by racial (“Indian”) and social (slave labour, labour trafficking) discrimination.

In this way, as part of the strategy for identity and social recognition, Kantuta Square is transformed every Sunday – the only day of the week these people go out – into a Bolivian “corner” of São Paulo. It is here that various types of relationships are established: gastronomic, artistic, job offers and other services. Meanwhile, in spite of the prevailing situation of clandestinity, these relationships are being progressively captured and codified, either through municipal regulations and positions (hygiene, standardisation of amenities, etc.), or through the cultural and financial networks, which not only went on to support the event but also applied a surcharge to money transfer channels.