José Luis Cabezas to Have a Street Named After Him 30 Years After His Murder

California Street, which crosses the Buenos Aires neighborhoods of Barracas and La Boca, will become José Luis Cabezas Street. The change honors the photojournalist murdered on Jan. 25, 1997, in Pinamar while working for Noticias magazine.

The Buenos Aires legislature approved the renaming definitively during Thursday’s regular session, with 47 votes in favor and 12 abstentions. Legislators from La Libertad Avanza accounted for the abstentions. The vote completed the double-reading procedure required for changes to the city’s street nomenclature.

The location carries a direct connection to Cabezas’s career. The Noticias newsroom operates on the current California Street, alongside facilities belonging to Grupo Perfil and the Universidad del Sur de Buenos Aires, or USBA. The university originally proposed the initiative. Rodrigo Lloret, Perfil’s director and a USBA professor, first promoted it, and legislator Matías López of Vamos por Más later took up the bill.

The proposal presents Cabezas as more than a photographer. It describes him as one of the most enduring symbols of Argentine journalism and the defense of freedom of expression. His killing followed the publication of his photograph of businessman Alfredo Yabrán, which publicly revealed the face of a figure long associated with power and anonymity. The project frames the murder as an attempt to discipline the press and frighten people who investigated and published information.

The crime prompted nationwide demonstrations by journalists and citizens under the slogan “Don’t forget Cabezas.” That phrase became part of Argentina’s collective memory. The street name now brings the remembrance into an everyday setting, where people who work, study or travel along the road will encounter a reference to a story tied to the country’s democratic life.

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Don't forget Cabezas