2024-03-24 03:01:00
The date is imposed on the calendar and what it says is that This March 24 marks 48 years since the civic-military coup. In times of denialism, where discussions and actions are opened that should be settled – questioning whether there were 30,000, proposing pardons to release repressors or encouraging provocations – one of the protagonists that comes to demonstrate that memory conquers time is football. That sport that in 1978 was under the wing of terror to celebrate winning a World Cup, for several years now, through the clubs, He is showing his commitment to truth and justice.
Last Tuesday, The River Human Rights Commission honored the detained and missing members during the last dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla. In the presence of 200 members who came to the club’s Auditorium Room, Family and friends of 14 partners and one partner, relived anecdotes and remembered the relationship that each of these people had with the Millionaire.
“My old man, according to what everyone who knew him tells me, was an excellent player, a great midfielder, distributor of the game and very skilled. Small for his size as a child, but with a tremendous ability to break the waist and dribble. This, just as it brought him moments where they went against him to get him down because they couldn’t stop him, it also made the family at some point suggest he try out for River. At that time he was 15 years old, he had started to work, to be interested in politics, but he was still him. It was tried and it stuck. In other words, he could have represented the club he loves, but with militancy and work he couldn’t manage enough time to give himself that chance.“, Ernesto Gayá tells Página 12, who was present at this action that River did, to remember his father Gustavo Adolfo Gayá, one of the honored partners. “In the sky now there is a crack that we couldn’t enjoy down here,” he highlights.
The honored partners are completed by Marcelo Castello, Yves Domergue, Ricardo Alberto Gayá, Américo Sady, Ricardo Cagnoni, Mauricio Weinstein, Alejandro Goldar Parodi, Carlos Noriega, Eduardo Horane, Mauricio Poltarak, Pablo Fernández Meijide and Pablo Galarcep. And to them, as the Núñez club reported in a statement, “Celestino Baztarrica and Silvia Del Valle Varela recently joined, both of whom are currently looking for family or friends.”
“River has been carrying out these actions for many years. –their connection with Abuelas, delivery of t-shirts, visits to Ex ESMA-. What happened now is that it was institutionalized through the commission, which is made up of people from different places who are committed to human rights and have a broad idea regarding the new rights, in addition to the more classic ones,” says Rodrigo Daskal, president of the Commission.
For its part, Boca also paid tribute to its missing partners and restored cards to the relatives of Daniel Lázaro Rus, Benjamín Isaac Dricas and José Luis Lucero, event that was attended by Gustavo Veiga, journalist from Page 12author of the book Sports, missing people and dictatorship.
Racing has also set a precedent in this construction of club memory, through the restitution of cards to missing members that it carried out a few years ago. Julián Scher, journalist and sociologist, author of the books The missing of Racing y Eternal Partnerswas the one who introduced the story of 46 partners detained and disappeared by the dictatorship, through a great investigation that began with the footprint of Roberto Santorothe poet, militant and racinguista, author of the capital compilation ball literature, kidnapped on June 1, 1977, the one who wrote: “My country has lost many inhabitants / and they say that some army corps has them / me, sir? / yes sir / no sir / then who has them? / the police / me sir? / yes sir / no sir / then who has them? / the chamber of terror / me sir? / yes sir / no sir / then who has them? / the parapolice organizations / me sir? / yes sir / no sir / then who has them? / So who has them? / So who has them?”
“What happened is that in five years the book The missing from Racing managed to become an act, where Racing restored the cards to the relatives of the detained and missing partners. And that act became a book again and between one and the other, What it means is the militancy, the work, the commitment of many people that allowed the list to go from 21 cases to 46, which were finally honored. I had the privilege of telling stories that have to do with memory, affection, the tireless fight against oblivion and impunity. None of what we did, do and will do, would be possible if it were not for everything mothers, grandmothers, children, family members did since the dawn of the dictatorship. Any grain of sand that we do is one more contribution to what Mothers and Grandmothers taught us.”, dice Scher.
And he maintains: “In recent years there has been a push within the clubs of an intense minority of members, fans, militants, who, through different formats – clubs, departments – or organization that each group of people could create, has paid countless tributes to missing colleagues and has worked to defend the memory, truth and justice. In a context in which we are living, not only since the inauguration of (Javier) Milei, but since the last years, the last decade, I dare to say, There was a strong offensive against the triad memory, truth and justice, in that context the clubs have deployed initiatives such as those of Racing and many others, including from different categories.”.
The ball does not shut up
Jorge Valdano once highlighted that football without the word was “not much.” That which he sought to silence, also in this sport, drowning it in goals and oblivion, is a signifier that is filled with memory today. A muscle that continues to grow due to the work of the clubs that keep the claims and actions in force. Just as River, Boca and Racing did and continue to do, other clubs keep the flame lit from other activities that do not lose focus. Teams from the South zone decided to attend the march for memory this Sunday the 24th, all on the same train, dressed in the shirts of their clubs. The initiative involves fans of Los Andes, Banfield, Talleres, Lanús, El Porvenir, Racing and Independiente.
“The central call of the Argentine Football Human Rights Coordinator is at 11 a.m. in Bernardo de Irigoyen and Av. de Mayo in CABA. The idea came from Coco Fachal who proposed it in a web forum where Banfield and Lanús fans participate,” says Sergio Smietnansky, member of the Coordinator, to this newspaper. “The work that many clubs have been carrying out in pursuit of linking football with Memory, Truth and Justice is very important to contribute to the construction of institutions that can have a Human Rights perspective as well as gender perspectives, inclusion, with social and environmental commitment. In terms of human rights, clubs are synonymous with identity, which is why the policy that is taking place in many clubs to restore their status to missing members is so transcendental.”.