In Argentina, today is the national holiday “Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia” or “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice”. It is a solemn holiday that commemorates the fall of the democratic government on March 24, 1976 to the military dictatorship that ruled until 1983. You can read more about it at wikipedia.
It’s sobering to realize that people my age who grew up here actively remember the horrors of this dictatorship, which suspended Congress, banned political parties, and tortured and “disappeared” upwards of 30,000 people who voiced any opposition to those in power.
Those who remember want to be sure that the country as a whole never forgets those dark days. Complacency is seen as a great enemy here, where corruption did indeed overtake democracy for a time, and the people suffered terribly at the hands of those who successfully seized power through illegal means.
All over the city as you walk around, you see plaques in the sidewalk erected to remember those who were taken and never seen again. The nearest one to us now is a few blocks away, in front of a public high school Escuela de Educación Media N° 07 D.E. 9 – which has been named to honor on of the disappeared. Maria Claudia Falcone was 16 years old when she was kidnapped and never seen again.
As I was working this morning in our apartment on Avenida Santa Fe (one of the larger traffic corridors), I heard drum beats and chanting. This is not unusual, as many buses taking fans to soccer games come through here. It’s common to hear a bus of partying fans drumming and cheering on the way to a game. But that’s usually one or two buses in the late afternoon, and they pass with traffic pretty quickly.
But this was around noon, and it wasn’t boisterous, and it wasn’t passing quickly. It was a huge parade of people walking on foot, commemorating the holiday and reminding us all of what can and did happen here. For more than half an hour, people in coordinated groups from suburbs like Quilmes (to the south) and Tigre (to the north) walked and waved flags and banners, played music and chanted, sang songs, and hoisted signs with sentiments such as “NEVER AGAIN”.
As I watched this all unfold, I realized that this is a holiday, and yet these thousands of people are spending their day off walking for hours and miles, all to ensure that the next generation does not forget that these horrors can — and in fact did — happen here.
One reply on “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice”
Thank you, Elder M. This is both a sad memorial, but also a cautionary tale. We must never take democracy for granted.