00:00And one year and one day after the establishment of the civic military dictatorship in Argentina,
00:05the writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh was shot and kidnapped after distributing his
00:10well-known document letter from a writer to the military junta, in which he denounced
00:14in detail the regime's plans that, over time, would be carried out step by step.
00:19Today two grassroots militants preserve his house for anyone who wishes to visit it.
00:24Let's see.
00:27They are Mabel and Daniel.
00:29Today they are the guardians of the house and the memory of the Argentine writer and journalist
00:33Rodolfo Walsh, shot and disappeared by the civic military dictatorship.
00:37They live in and take care of Walsh house, which was invaded and looted by Argentine military
00:42force before they riddle him with bullets and make him disappear.
00:46They welcome anyone who wishes to come and see the house in order to keep the memory alive.
00:50This was the house to become a militant, then.
00:53You are here for that, for carrying forward Walsh militants in here.
00:58Those words never left me.
01:01Both former militants rediscovered the house of their biome.
01:06I asked the man from the supply boat, here, in Tigre, where the food and all that is brought
01:13by what's called a supply boat.
01:15I asked him, do you know who Rodolfo Walsh is?
01:18And he answered, how cool I not know, he was one of my customers.
01:24Here, on this corner of Buenos Aires, is where he was shot and from where he was taken away
01:29one day after distributing the open letter to the military juntas.
01:32The censorship of the press, the persecution of intellectuals, the raid on my house in
01:38Tigre, the murder of dear friends, and the loss of a doctor who died fighting them are
01:43some of the facts that forced me into this form of clandestine expression after having freely
01:48expressed myself as a writer and journalist for nearly 30 years.
01:52Mabel and Daniel are militants, all from different backgrounds.
01:56A mi, las madres de Plaza de Mayo me enseñaron a militar.
02:00The mothers of Plaza de Mayo told me how to be a militant.
02:04And that is a source of pride for me, a lesson, something I carry in my heart and I will
02:09always
02:09carry.
02:12Leaving a poor house in Juarez, far from everything, Rodolfo Walsh wrote remarkable histories,
02:18and together with Che Guevara, journalist Cesar Massetti, and other intellectuals, created
02:23the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, PRELA.
02:26The house preserves, among other trinkets and memories, an incredible amount of books.
02:33The library must have more or less around 1,500 books.
02:39And there must be about 5,000 to 10,000 books in electronic form.
02:45So it's a rather expensive library.
02:49All the effort is aimed at keeping the flame alive, on the banks of the Carapachay River,
02:54showing living history.
02:55This militancy, this pride in living here.
03:07In welcoming people and putting forth that strength of not forgetting, of keeping memory
03:12alive, of explaining that perhaps by coming together we can move forward.
03:18Even considering the different versions of this history.
03:25A neighbor appears and tells us that in this house there had been raids, and that some islanders
03:32said they had removed corsets, and that it was because Rodolfo Walsh lived here.
03:39And they were not corpses.
03:41It was what the military had stolen from the house.
03:44Daniel and Mabel create daily spells against forgetting.
03:47Militar esta casa es militar un hogar, es militar la memoria.
03:53To be a militant in this house is to be a militant in a home, a militant in memory.
04:00To keep fighting, let's say, under the banners, right?
04:03And it's also to never forget who Rodolfo Walsh was.
04:07Keeping the history, telling it, is the way to try to navigate toward a better harbor.
04:17I have hope that just as this house comes alive with each person who comes and listens
04:22to the story, I believe that memory cannot be erased.
04:26The truth is present, and at some point there will be justice.
04:30It remains to repeat the most familiar and affectionate words of Mabel and Daniel.
04:35Everyone, be welcomed to Rodolfo Walsh's house.
04:38Desde Buenos Aires, para Telesur, Fabian Restivo.
Comments