I remember when I lived in Argentina that I wanted to meet Hebe de Bonafini, the president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and I got her phone number and contacted her, who very kindly was waiting for me at her home in the city of La Plata at the agreed time and day.
We talked for more than an hour about Evita Perón, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Carlos Menem, Pope John Paul II, the current political situation in Argentina, and about the brave work that these mothers did and continue to do, which the dictatorship could not subdue, and whose demand for justice for the thousands of their children who disappeared was fulfilled in that nation.
Hebe passed into eternity on November 20th, 2022, but her life as a leader of the Argentina Mothers is always remembered, even with her contradictions, for her tireless work to search for the disappeared children and their grandchildren given to other families.
That long conversation led to in a finally awarded interview at the Provincial Radio Festival of 1999, it was first broadcast in the news magazine Contigo, from Radio Angulo, and later in other important spaces of Radio Cuba.
Now, after the tumultuous moments that Argentina is experiencing, following the conviction of former president Cristina Fernández for an alleged corruption scheme, I want to recall some fragments of that conversation for their political relevance.
The future depends on not forgetting the past, what do you do as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo to ensure this?
‘We talk about a fertile memory. Not a memory to remember horror. And fertility has to do with reproduction and with permanently reproducing what happened so that it does not happen again. To call for awareness and to a more solid political present. ‘And what the mothers do is build among the youth. Planting among the young people that politics is the best action of man.
And explain to them that it cannot be said that I do not do politics, because that is the worst thing, since it is the men who corrupt it and not politics itself. “You can do politics with ethics and principles. We take ownership of the streets, the squares, the public places that are ours, and it is there that the people develop their struggle.
“We say that we are a storm that shakes everything all the time. So what we mothers do is focus on the youth by speaking to them. Prepare cultural activities for them. Show them that culture is related to the whole project of developing a revolutionary politics.
“We believe that the Revolution is possible, but to make it happen, there must be a revolutionary man. It cannot be done by publishing a book and, even less, by talking in a café.”
What will happen the day the last mother dies?
“That is somewhat unpredictable. We know many young people who already have our ideology and know how to do politics with principles and know that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo believe in socialism, know how to share and distribute social justice.
“If we live a few more years, which I hope we will, we are going to be much more solid in this. Above all, the training of leaders, who should be intense and feel like mature men in their youth like our sons who were at twenty.
These are the expectations we mothers have and the task we have set for ourselves. “We hold meetings with young people. They are disillusioned with Argentina political parties because they feel used; and well this is the fundamental task and I believe that the day there are no more mothers, this seed that we are already planting will continue to grow.
In Argentina society, there is a marked individualism and selfishness that divide even progressive sectors in their struggle to achieve justice in Argentina. What do you think about this?
“I believe it is because there is no serious project on the part of the left and debating whether we won or lost while beating our chests. I believe the worst defeat is felt by a man when he thinks that what he is doing is for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
I think that successful revolutions do not set a time limit. ‘Successful revolutions are the serious ones, willing to give everything. Mothers are saying that to be revolutionary there are three states.
‘The first is solidarity, of course, this is the easiest. Second: the time one puts in, which has to be all the time. One has to work to make a living and then devote all the time to private life. And the third, and most complicated, is putting life at the service of the Revolution.’
Do you believe in justice in this country?
‘No, I do not believe in Argentina justice, because it is done by these men, but I think that justice exists, because that is what declarations and citizens’ rights are for. ‘
Justice exists, but in the abstract, like peace, freedom. That is talked about so much, but in today’s Argentina there is no justice. It is the most unjust country. There is no social justice or justice of any kind.”
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernandez
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