Virrey Cevallos: a place of Memoria is getting their Baldosa!
This was a home in the middle of a residential area during the last dictatorship. It was used as a clandestine center for detention, torture and extermination by the Argentine Air Force (1977 -1983) and appropriated in September 2004 by IEM (Instituto Espacio para la Memoria) as a space for memory. This Saturday it will be celebrating the placement of their Baldosa… if you are in the area… 🙂
I have been back in the US for almost three months now. I’ve returned to school trying to balance school work with my Fulbright work, which has proven to be quite a challenge. Recently though, it has all started to come together. I began my unit on Argentina in my ECE Spanish Cultural Topics course – a very emotional and exciting experience. Then, a couple of weeks ago I received an email from a lawyer in Germany who is researching the collective memory, creating a video and requesting an opportunity for some collaboration. And finally, I am giving my first formal presentation to fellow ECE instructors at UCONN.
Beginning the unit with my students was more difficult than I had imagined. This project took over my life for a good four months and I was concerned about the reaction that students might have. I questioned if they would be bored, uninterested, or even passive and then I thought about if that happened, how would I react? After all the time and effort that I have put into this, would I be able to keep my decorum if that happened? My goal was to try and help students understand that this is not history – but it is real life. What I found out so far, is that my students are awesome! We have only completed the first part of my unit plans and they have proven to be inquisitive, interested, and thirsty for more information. The passion that I have about this topic has rubbed off.
When I received an email from Berlin, Germany, from a person who found my blog interesting enough to contact me, and was seeking further information, I was elated. It was such an incredible feeling to think that someone (not my friends, family or students) read my work and it peeked an interest. We video-chatted this morning and shared our work. I hope that I will be able to support her in any way in her endeavors during her short time in Buenos Aires as she tries to complete her video on the collective memory.
Finally, it is time to give my first Fulbright presentation. It is somewhat of a difficult and emotional experience to share something so near and dear to my heart. I will be presenting to a group of 30-50 teachers who teach the same course that I do – a course that inspired me to apply for the Fulbright DAT program. I wanted to deepen my understanding of Argentina’s past and present in order to provide my students with something more meaningful and real. So, now I will be trying to express this to a group of teachers… my only hope is that they prove to be as awesome as my students…. we shall see.
After Sunday’s highly emotional ceremony at la Iglesia de Santa Cruz and the exciting Marcha de la Resistencia on the following Thursday, I thought my experiences with the Madres had ended. Wrong! My new and dear friend, Adelina, gave me a call and asked if I would meet her that next Thursday after the ronda and invited me for a ‘goodbye’ tea afterwards. I could not resist the invitation as I wanted to see her one more time to hear more about her brother and possibly film her reading a beautiful poem she had written in memory of her brother.
The Ronda this day was quite small but the usual faces of the mothers were there. As well, Hebe’s group, La Asociación de las Madres de la Plaza, also came and did their gig. I watched Adelina with the other mothers walk silently around the plaza. I took some pictures and when Adelina saw me her face lit up. When they finished the ronda, I joined them to listen to their announcements about the upcoming testimonies on December 9 for one of the cases against a repressor who is presently part of the government. When it was all finished Adelina explained to me that we were ALL going to a cafe … to their usual Thursday evening meeting place. We walked down the Avenida de Mayo to the cafe where I proceeded to meet some of the famous 14! They shared their stories with me, explained the history behind the two groups of Madres: la Linea Fundadora and Asociación, and we shared birthday cake for an honorary Madre who turned 91 years old. This 91 year old had been captured, tortured for 5 years during the dictatorship for having hidden some political militants in her house and finally released. The people she had hidden were the sons and daughters of the women with whom I was sitting at that very moment. I was introduced to many of the founding mothers, a couple of whom I had seen at many of the events I had attended over the past 4 months. These women greeted me with open arms, kissed me, thanked me for doing what I was doing, and held my hand as they told me their stories. When it was time to go, I walked Adelina to the Subte station and gave her a big hug and kiss wishing her a merry Christmas. I walked away reflecting on what just happened and realizing what an amazing way to bring my studies full circle. Adelina called me that night to see how I was coming along and make sure I was eating a good dinner! Amazing!
December 10, 2013 marked the 30th anniversary of democracy for Argentina. I have been working so hard trying to finish editing my video, I was not sure I was going to be able to make it down to the plaza to observe the festivities which were to begin at 3… I figured that meant 5-5:30. So, we went down to check out the scene at around 6pm. The “Fiesta Popular” had begun… the marching had started, the stages were filled with performances, the parrillas were hot with chorizos and hamburgers. A major celebration was in the works!
The various groups marched down from Congreso to Plaza de Mayo with the flags flailing, the drums beating and the people chanting. Everyone celebrating the fact that they are free. The MCs on the main stage came on the enormous screens around the plaza in between performers to remind the public why they are celebrating… Democracy!
What left such an impression on me were the words that kept resonating the whole evening. I kept hearing statements like: “we must remember”, “to always have justice”, “Nunca Más” (never again), “for the people”, … Memory, Justice, Truth, Democracy, Pueblo… All words reminding people about the past and the importance of remembering the past … That only 31 years ago, democracy was not a reality, that the people must continue to remember in order to keep democracy present every day. It became an emotional event for me – I am not sure why – I guess knowing that I come from a land where democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of beliefs, and so many other freedoms are taken for granted. I have never known anything else. And as I observed the jubilant faces of these citizens, I saw hope, excitement, and necessity to keep up the fight.
The festivities continued into the wee hours but at about 10pm I found my way as close as I could to the barricades and was fortunate to witness the President, Kristina Kirchner, come on to the stage and address the public followed by major fireworks and confetti falling from the night skies – an absolutely amazing feeling! What a way to put closure on my four and a half months in Argentina.
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.
This past week I had the great fortune of being exposed to the library system of Buenos Aires. I had previously visited the private library of IEM (Instituto Espacio para la Memoria) and spent one full day there researching. Unfortunately, many of the original periodicals that I was looking for were not housed in this library . I was told that I could find the material at the Archivo General de la Nacional (the National Archives) or even the National Library but that the National Library should be my last resort as they have a very incomplete collection. I was given the address, phone number and website of the National Archives and was told to call first, or email, in order to enter you must make an appointment.
I tried calling every day… for about a full week. I made numerous attempts daily only to get a message which stated in Spanish “You have reached the department of the interior. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered” – after which the line was cut off. Finally, in the hopes of having an angel to help, I made one more attempt (#10000) and if there was no success, I was going to make the trip in person – with or without an appointment. Well, much to my surprise, someone answered and gave me the extension of the department that I needed. She then patched me through to the same recording: “you have reached…” and then dead! I redialed the phone number only to find out the the extension number I was given was “not recognized”. After several more attempts, I got the operator who informed me that the address I had was incorrect and that I needed to go to a different address to find the material I was looking for and that no appointment was necessary. Before handing up, I confirmed several times that this was the correct place to find original newspapers from 1970-1984. So, I made my way to the center of the city, Paseo Colón, in search of the National Arvhives – expecting a remarkable building where one would expect national treasures to be stored. I found it – an unassuming, graffiti riddled building… I registered my camera with the police, gave the guard my passport and found my way to the 3rd floor through a maze of hallways and doors to a very small room filled with literature books from the 18th and 19th century. The librarian informed me that there are no periodicals at this location. He was very kind, though and gave me the address of two other libraries which would have what I am looking for: the Library of the Press and that of the Legislature – both walking distance… kind of.
So off I went to the Library of the Press. When I entered, the doorman informed me the the library was closed to the public and has been for the last couple of years. He was kind enough to call someone to find out where I could go…the Library of the Legislature or the Library of Congress. So I left and headed to the Legislature, Perú 130 … it was closer.
The guard at the door was a delightful woman who, after recording my passport information, walked me through the halls, down a ramp, through a kitchen to a very small area – personally delivering me to the library where the old newspapers are housed. On the way she asked if I had ever been here before and explained what an important place it was. She then asked if I wanted to go on a guided tour. Before I knew it, it was all arranged and I was walking around the city of Buenos Aires’ Legislature Palace. I saw the law library, Evita’s original desk, her dressing room…It was an amazing building built between 1926-3, filled with european marble, extravagant halls, and grandiose stairs. At the end I proceed to go to the library where they keep files of the various periodicals from this period…. on microfiche! … Unfortunately, when I requested the various newspapers (about 6) and the dates that I was looking for, I found out that they only had one, La Nación. Well, I figured it was better than nothing so I proceeded to spin through the microfiche in search of my pictures and headlines. As I was explaining to the librarian what I needed, another researcher chimed in and said that I should check out the National Library (right down the street from my apartment) for my material – that they had the originals but that their collection was not very complete… sound familiar?
So, down the street I went to the Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno with very low expectations. I arrived, registered my camera and passport, put all my other belongings in the mandatory locker and proceeded to the help desk where I was greeted by a very friendly librarian who explained how the process works:
I had over 70 newspapers to shoot… I think you can begin to image how drawn out and inefficient this process was – I was a little edgy at first and then I took a couple of deep breadths and dug in to my work – only to find out that they had almost every document I was looking for – all but one as it was too destroyed to let anyone look at it… amazing… this is Argentina!
So during this whole process I got a taste of some of Argentina’s true colors – things that people have been talking to me about but not until now had I actually experienced:
Daniela Rivera, the English teacher at EET 7, asked if I would go to her school in Quilmes, one town to the south of Avellaneda. It is a private bilingual school and every Tuesday and Thursday, the afternoon session is a complete immersion in English! I received an email from her arranging for the Laura Mabres to pick me up and bring me home – … I couldn’t believe it…so off I went to Colegio Mancedo Midlands College in Quilmes.
Colegio Mancedo Midlands College has a really interesting past. It is 80 years old – I think the second oldest school in Quilmes. It was founded by Lucia Mabres’ great grandmother. Their plan was to have a school that was bi-lingual, not religious, and incorporated music and sports… what a concept here in Argentina… really! Lucia actually studied to be a doctor and after working in that field for several years, became disillusioned and decided to follow in the footsteps of her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother. So now, she and her sister run their family’s school: Colegio Mancedo.
Upon my arrival, I was greeted with open arms from students and faculty alike… no paperwork or legalese to workout. I felt like such a rock star! I met with every class, grades 7-12 where they all interviewed me – their english was amazing! The first class was with the seniors and our conversation got into the last dictatorship. Students shared with me their family stories – one student mentioned how her father was almost taken several times, and others mentioned various stories of how this period of time was a scary and terrifying time for their relatives. On the drive in to school, Lucia and I talked about my project topic too and she shared with me how her uncle was in the military during this time and that he was threatened several times by the Montoneros. His house was bombed. The bomb landed in the children’s room – thankfully they were not in their beds sleeping at the time! She also shared with me another chilling story of another high military official who had hired a nanny. The nanny was a Montonero and helped plan the abduction and murder of this innocent baby. All chilling stories which made me remember that there are always two sides to every story!
Anyways, the afternoon flew by, with great conversations with both the students and faculty. Daniela introduced me to a legend in the field of English education in Argentina, Betty Damiani. Betty retired from Colegio Mancedo but continues to work there out of love. It turns out that Betty and Monica, the teacher who got me into the Avellaneda school and introduced me to Daniela, are co-authors of several texts on teaching English. They both taught Patricia Lopez (a fellow fulbrighter) who, as it turns out, also went to school with Daniela… an intricate web of connections that is so very important here in Argentine.
Daniela is the English department chair at his school and it was so fun to brainstorm ways to bring these two schools together. It was the first time that I actually felt that I could build a long lasting relationship with another school. My head was spinning… from Skyping, to emails, integrating classroom with Edmodo, connections with the middle school students as well as high school, even the possibility of a student exchange and home stay! Holy moly… so many possibilities.
What I have come to realize,though, is that the educational system here relies on the “taxi” teachers – they do not have the time to sit and exchange ideas – they enter a school, teach their class for 1-2 hours and then they leave. They often do not know the department head, their colleagues who teach the same material, or other students in the school other than their own. Crazy! It is hard to believe that an educational system runs like this but it does. What was so wonderful was that Daniela is the coordinator with so many great ideas and whose job is to bring to fruition these ideas… what a concept!
So, meeting Daniela and Lucia was truly an amazing experience. I was so impressed with their vision and determination which will have a lasting impact on their students in the years to come … It was a breadth of fresh air.
PS… I am still waiting on a picture of Daniela and Lucia… I was so overcome by excitement, I forgot to take one:)
Summer vacation is around the corner for students… exams are beginning this week for many and run, depending on the school, for several weeks. The official summer vacation begins a couple of days before Christmas. The new academic year begins the end of February – beginning of March.
I have been visiting the school, EET 7, in Avellaneda -both English and History classes and have truly enjoyed the teachers and the students – they were so welcoming, friendly and interested. Both classes, unfortunately, only meet one time a week for 2 hours… that is – Argentina time… they do not have full 2 hour classes… they begin around 30 minutes in, then they have about a 20 minute break in the middle… you do the math:).
Aldo Martinez, is the history teacher, another “taxi” teacher who is a native of Avellaneda. He welcomed me into the class and shared many thoughts on education in Argentina – the pros and cons, the issues, the reasons why it is the way it is… the list goes on and calls for another post or even a book! In any case, he works in 4 different schools and invited me to join him in another history class at a private school in the same town later that week. He explained that he ends every year with the military dictatorship and shows a movie… “the Official Story”… the same film that I use. It was fantastic to observe not only the class, but how he incorporates the same movie, and the comments that he adds coming from an argentinian. The students were a little more reserved, but asked me some questions and offered me their thoughts on the memory and the last dictatorship. It was fun!
Back at EET 7, a couple of weeks ago, I brought my forms for them to fill out as I wanted to interview them for my project. It was the beginning of their unit on the last dictatorship and I wanted to do a pre-unit activity with them and film it. They were very enthusiastic and willing to do this so I was doubly excited to go back. Well, unfortunately, I learned that spring fever / ‘senioritis’ exists in Argentina too! Not one student had their form! I was so disappointed. But as all good teachers… I had a plan B! Long story short, I was able to do a mini lesson with them and they worked so well! Instead of filming them discussing – I had them write a one-word (or phrase) answer to my question and hold it up in front of their faces. Take a look… what do you think the question was?… What I realized while doing this, was how much I miss being with my students and working with kids… it was lots of fun!
I met Noemí Fernández-Durán, Mimí, at the Baldosa creation and placement ceremony at the Cerámica 1 School last month. Her sister is Hilda Fernandez. Hilda was taken on January 21,1977 – she remains disappeared. Mimí and I met on Friday evening to “chat” when I learned not only about Hilda but also about all the work that Mimí is doing for the collective memory… not just here in Argentina, but as well in Spain.
Hilda is Mimí’s little sister. She was a student at the Cerámica 1 school, graduated, went to university and was working in publicity. Mimí considers her sister an artist – she was a very creative individual. During the last military dictatorship she was a militant collaborating with the Montaneros – helping with their publicity. On January 21, 1977 she and a friend, a fellow Montonero, were scheduled to meet someone at a café “on business”. She never returned home. Mimí was in Brazil and had returned the following day to attend a family function. She did not see her sister and thought that was very strange. Mimí’s boyfriend, a lawyer, suggested that maybe Hilda had “disappeared”. It was not until the family received a letter from a fellow Montonero describing what an eyewitness had seen on that January 21st afternoon that they knew Hilda had “disappeared”. At the time of the scheduled meet, the witness saw two young ladies walk by the café and noticed that the cafe was not opened yet (which was rare). They walked by and looked in the window and kept walking. A little while later they returned. On the corner were two Ford Falcons. They were captured – each thrown into a different Ford Falcon. Mimí’s boyfriend issued a ‘writ of habious corpus’ requiring the person to be presented in front of the court. The writ was denied. Mimí tried all avenues to investigate any information about her sister’s whereabouts – unfortunately, all avenues were dead-ended.
It was not until the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of democracy in 1983 that Mimi was finally able to continue her search and fight for justice. She worked very hard, exploring several avenues to find out information about her sister, Hilda. Her first step was to file an official “complaint” on behalf of her sister with the help of a lawyer, Carlos Slepoy, at CONADEP (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas)- known for the publication of Nunca Más – see link) which includes all the testimonies and information gathered regarding all the disappearance and acts against human rights during the last dictatorship. She then petitioned CELS (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales) an organization that was created in 1979 to respond to the grave human rights violations during the terrorism of state and to give legal assistance to petitioners. She went to Familiares, another organization helping family members to find their disappeared, as well as EAAF (the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team) – a non-governmental scientific organization established in 1984 that applies forensic sciences – mainly forensic anthropology and archaeology – to investigate the cases of the disappeared people in Argentina under the military government. In 2000, Mimí, with a couple of other brothers and sisters of missing people, decided to found the Human Rights organization “Hermanos” (brothers/sisters) whose objective was (and remains today) to search for the truth about the abductions and / or assassinations by the terrorist state during the last dictatorship. Being a psychologist, Mimí decided that it was important for people to talk about what occurred during this horrific period of time. To that end she decided to organize meetings with family members and friends of the disappeared and the militants in order to simply talk about what had happened.
It was not until 2002 when Marta Mercedes Alvarez, a survivor of ESMA, was walking through the offices of EAAF when she saw on a computer screen a photo of Hilda. She was able to identify her and confirm that Hilda was in fact placed at ESMA. (In 2005, Marta was also a key witness who was able to place an important official, Scilingo, at ESMA. See article.) It is believed that Hilda was executed in ESMA, however there are still not records to prove this.
Mimí’s fight for human rights and justice did not end with this knowledge of her sister. She continues fighting for the collective memory here in Buenos Aires and in Spain – Mimí’s family roots are in Galicia and it was during one of her visits to to Galicia, her “homeland”, she discovered that her Uncle was executed in Spain during the Franco regime (1936)! She has been working with two lawyers, Carlos Slepoy and Ana Mesutti – working under Universal Law helping families in Spain file complaints against the Spanish government for disappearances and acts against human right during and after the Franco Regime (1936-1975). Because they are unable to file such complaints in Spain, they are travelling to Argentina to complete this task – Spain does not recognize the Franco Regime as a dictatorship – nor that there was any sort of genocide – therefore complaints may not be filed in that country. Forty Spanish citizens are arriving this week in Buenos Aires – 25 of whom are here to officially file complaints against the Spanish government. Not only are there disappeared during and after the Franco regime but there are 30,000 babies who have been taken from families and given different identities. Mimí is fighting for these children as well. Because of the connection that these two countries have, the Spanish contingent has started their own “ronda” – similar to the ronda that the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo realize every Thursday at 3:30 at the Plaza de Mayo. Spanish Human Rights Organizations have started to do the same at La Plaza Mayor in Madrid – also at 3:30 every Thursday – this is their third anniversary – demanding for justice and punishment for their acts again human rights in Spain. … 30,000 disappeared in Argentina – 30,000 stolen babies in Spain. Incredible! How cans this happen?
I can’t believe that it has been 90 days already and that my visa was going to expire. I had two choices: 1- go to the Consulate, stand on line and pay to renew the visa or… 2 – pay for a round-trip ticket to Uruguay for the day and upon the return the visa is automatically renewed for another 90 days. Which did you think I took? So off to Uruguay for a day – a fast speed ferry and a day wondering the streets of this charming, quaint, colonial village of Colonia del Sacramento which is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This village faces Buenos Aires and is located on the coast of the Rio de la Plata. Its location was the cause for a very turbulent history. It is located at such a strategic point at the mouth of the river with access to the center of the continent via the Rio de la Plata. It was first founded in 1680 by Portugal but was later disputed by the Spanish who had settled across the river in Buenos Aires. It was fought over between the Spanish and Portuguese until mid 1800s. So during and after the time of the Spanish / Portuguese exploration and conquest it was fought over continuously as they each wanted control of this maritime highway.
PS. I had to try their national dish… Chivito…(little goat). It is a sandwich…but I decided to watch my calories by excluding the breadJ It consists of beef topped with slices of ham, bacon, lettuce and tomato, melted mozzarella cheese, and a fried egg… a cholesterol heaven! Optional toppings (which were all included on my dish:) include cooked onions, olives, peppers, and pickles … take a look! Yuuuuummmm!
Old Lyme to Buenos Aires 