ESMA

Getting into ESMA to film with a guided tour was quite a process. It began on September 10 with a phone call requesting a free three hour guided visit. By the end of the conversation I learned that I would not be able to film or take any pictures during this tour as this building was still considered a crime scene and being used for evidence during the ESMA trials. After several minutes of explaining who I was and why I needed to film, I was directed to a different office that dealt with filming authorizations. I was instructed to submit an application for authorization explaining my objectives, purpose and justification for filming. A couple of weeks later I received an email requesting further information such as a script and storyboard. I quickly submitted a script for my film describing my plan and waited another three weeks. I have learned here that I needed to be persistent with my emails so every week I would email Juan Lorges requesting any news and would receive an apologetic “no” with a reminder that he would contact me with any information. Finally, the end of October, I received an email from my now new friend Juan who informed me that I was approved to film and that I could go ahead and schedule a guided tour! I almost kissed the screen when I read this. I called the next day to arrange the visit only to find out that I had to wait until the second week of December! Well, that was simply not acceptable, so after pleading and explaining my situation and reminding them how long I had already waited, they scheduled me in a tour for the “Press” at the end of November. I felt that this was a fair compromise. Through this whole process I learned that ESMA is controlled by 3 governing groups: the city, IEM, and the nation. All three groups have to approve everything… That is why it took so long for authorization and in retrospect, when considering Argentinian time, it actually was not long at all.

Tuesday November 26, noon, was the big day. We geared up with the tripod, mics, cameras and headed up to ESMA for our tour expecting to be meeting several journalist or “press” people, only to learn that it was just private…How incredible! Camila was our guide. She proceeded to explain the history, describe details and answer every question – she was incredible!

The ‘Casino’ was the building that we toured. This was where the officers of the naval school lived- they slept, ate, relaxed and worked here. It was also where they detained, tortured and killed so many people. The detainees entered in the basement, were kept there for torture and then brought up to the attic or ‘capucho’ where they were kept with blind folds and shackles in narrow spaces laying on their backs. On the same floor as some of the officers quarters, they created a birthing room where many young women gave birth with blind folds and lost their babies to the military who then gave them away to affluent and/or military families. On ‘transfer days’ the prisoners were brought back to the basement and brought to the ford falcon trunks where they were then taken to a plane to be thrown out to their death. During the entire dictatorship the ESMA campus (including many buildings) remained a school. Young cadets roamed the buildings and campus, and officers and civilians went about their daily life while many thousands of people were imprisoned here… Secretly! How is that possible? I learned that this building actually remained a military school up until 2004 when the school was moved to another location. This was done in order to commit this location to a place of memory and to be able to gather evidence for the trials of the repressors. Unfortunately, the navy made many renovations to the building to conceal potential evidence. The first major renovation was prior to the Human Rights Commission’s visit to view the facility in1978 responding to the growing concern of the disappearances that were being revealed on the global stage. These renovations where made in order to refute testimonies of released prisoners – for example they removed an elevator, changed the location of the stairs, closed an open air gallery… So many changes were made to fool the commission and the saddest part… It worked!

After 3 hours and 40 minutes of touring and learning about this sinister place, and feeling so overwhelmed with emotion – almost to the point of crying – we packed up the equipment and headed to the bus stop in a daze – my head exploding with information. The first thing I wanted to do was write this blog but unfortunately, I had to focus on editing my video project… That is why this blog post is so delayed!… Sorry.