A reminder that nothing good can come of a totalitarian regime in hand with a corrupt military. As beautiful as Gelman's letter is, it is still heart breaking.
Thank you for posting this agonisingly beautiful letter.
Every day, I walk past some of the many memorial plaques to the disappeared in my barrio - they are cemented into the pavement outside the buildings in which they lived or worked, since most have no burial place. Each plaque gives the names of the murdered, the date last seen alive, and states that they were the victims of state terrorism.
Now that I have grandchildren of my own, my heart resonates with the sorrow expressed here. I am so glad that Snr Gelman met his granddaughter in the end. I'm sure we all want to know how she felt about all this, but obviously her privacy is paramount. I hope she had a happy childhood, despite the way her new family was formed. Her birth parents would surely have wanted that for her., as did her grandfather.
This letter tells us a story to which we should say "never again", but the cruel words and actions of our new president are anything but reassuring. Let us hope they do not degenerate into another cycle of evil deeds such as these perpetrated on dissenters.
I've been lucky enough to have my 2 young grandchildren (2 and 4) and their parents staying with my husband and me for the last month. I can hardly imagine the loss and suffering of this father/ grandfather. What a beautiful letter. Thank goodness he finally found his grand daughter.
Great reminders of the terror other nations have visited on others. And also a reminder of what we are visiting on ourselves - and on future generations by courting the current international totalitarianism .
Just a note: "Isabel" or "Isabelita" was the name she was best known as (it was her confirmation name), but her real name is María Estela Martínez de Perón.
Reading this was very important to me, thank you. My partner, and father of my child, is Argentinian, born in 1986. I have been with him for about 7 years, I have visited his family and friends in Buenos Aires four or five times, I have read some of the history of the Abuelas de la Plaza, I have read Borges. But reading this letter was the first time that I wept at the awful cruelty of the dictatorship and the families destroyed by it, SUCH A SHORT TIME AGO. All of this happened, was still happening, when my partner was born there.
A reminder that nothing good can come of a totalitarian regime in hand with a corrupt military. As beautiful as Gelman's letter is, it is still heart breaking.
Beautiful!
Just a note, José Mujica was the President as we don't have Prime Ministers here in Uruguay :)
Fixed. Thanks very much!
Thank you for posting this agonisingly beautiful letter.
Every day, I walk past some of the many memorial plaques to the disappeared in my barrio - they are cemented into the pavement outside the buildings in which they lived or worked, since most have no burial place. Each plaque gives the names of the murdered, the date last seen alive, and states that they were the victims of state terrorism.
Now that I have grandchildren of my own, my heart resonates with the sorrow expressed here. I am so glad that Snr Gelman met his granddaughter in the end. I'm sure we all want to know how she felt about all this, but obviously her privacy is paramount. I hope she had a happy childhood, despite the way her new family was formed. Her birth parents would surely have wanted that for her., as did her grandfather.
This letter tells us a story to which we should say "never again", but the cruel words and actions of our new president are anything but reassuring. Let us hope they do not degenerate into another cycle of evil deeds such as these perpetrated on dissenters.
Fuerza. x
I've been lucky enough to have my 2 young grandchildren (2 and 4) and their parents staying with my husband and me for the last month. I can hardly imagine the loss and suffering of this father/ grandfather. What a beautiful letter. Thank goodness he finally found his grand daughter.
Great reminders of the terror other nations have visited on others. And also a reminder of what we are visiting on ourselves - and on future generations by courting the current international totalitarianism .
Unimaginable...
Thank you for sharing this! <3
Just a note: "Isabel" or "Isabelita" was the name she was best known as (it was her confirmation name), but her real name is María Estela Martínez de Perón.
Do you know what became of her? Where she lives, what she does?
She's in her 90s now and lives in Spain.
Reading this was very important to me, thank you. My partner, and father of my child, is Argentinian, born in 1986. I have been with him for about 7 years, I have visited his family and friends in Buenos Aires four or five times, I have read some of the history of the Abuelas de la Plaza, I have read Borges. But reading this letter was the first time that I wept at the awful cruelty of the dictatorship and the families destroyed by it, SUCH A SHORT TIME AGO. All of this happened, was still happening, when my partner was born there.