Carl Fredricksen: Hey, let's play a game. It's called "see who can be quiet the longest."Russell: Cool! My mom loves that game!
-"Up" 2009
Palermo
That game is not very popular here, as there is no such thing as keeping quiet in Argentina. On my first day of Spanish class, my teacher told us that we Americans are too politically correct for a place like Buenos Aires. Our first homework assignment was to ask our host families, acquaintances, and even complete strangers about politics, religion, and anything else that we thought to be politically incorrect. At the same time, our teacher warned us to expect the same sense of brashness in return.
He was right. People here have opinions ranging from the most well-informed to the most illogical propagations of stereotypes gone terribly wrong. Regardless, they are not afraid to speak out about them. Of course, this can be very inappropriate at times, such as when people call their best of friends offensive nicknames or when they scream "China" at me from across a plaza simply because Asians are so rarely seen here.
But this outspoken mentality can be incredibly empowering as well.
Wednesday, March 24 was the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, the anniversary of the 1976 coup that initiated Argentina's most recent military dictatorship. The day commemorates the victims of the military junta's National Reorganization Process, in particular the desaparecidos, up to 30,000 political dissidents who were abducted, tortured, and killed by the military between 1976 and 1983. On this day, tens of thousands of porteños take to the streets of Buenos Aires to honor the memory of these individuals, find the truth about their fates, and demand that the horrors of the Dirty War never happen again.
I got the opportunity to be a part of this movement. I joined the march under the banner of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH), an organization affiliated with my human rights seminar (and quite possibly, my internship location for this semester).
The experience was absolutely incredible. I joined 40,000 other people in a march so large that it took us nearly two hours to walk down a mere three blocks to the Plaza de Mayo, the political center of Buenos Aires. The sounds of drums, horns, shouting, and chanting filled the air as we walked down an Avenida de Mayo filled with flags of different colors and banners containing the pictures and names of those suspected to have disappeared.
We were surrounded by countless symbols signifying the desaparecidos and the military dictatorship as well. 30,000 white hearts were distributed and hung throughout the plaza to represent each individual suspected to have disappeared. People wore, carried, and painted on their banners white head scarves to demonstrate their support for the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, the mothers of the disappeared who joined together in the 1970s and 1980s to demand more transparency about the whereabouts and fates of their sons and daughters.
In retrospect, I think what made this experience so fascinating was the sheer number of people who came together to commemorate one of the most horrific eras in Argentinean history. Granted, the rationale that each group, even each individual, had in joining this march differed from the most politically charged of ideas to the most innocent sense of curiosity about the event, but these differences did not stop everyone from coming together to fight for exactly what this national holiday is all about: truth and justice.
I must admit that I scoffed a little when my Spanish teacher first told me that everyone here speaks out about their opinions, despite how ridiculous and uninformed they may be. Yes, ignorance can be a very dangerous thing, especially in the realm of politics and power. But silence can be just as dangerous, especially when individuals with even the slightest bit of knowledge do nothing to make a statement about what is or what should be.
There are many things that are still lacking here in Argentina. The idea of making a statement is not one of them.
Short video of the march:
Additional photos:
