Lugares de Memoria: The ex-ESMA and the Mariani-Teruggi House

This week we took two field trips with the Comisión. On Monday, we attended an academic conference at the former ESMA (Navy Mechanics School) which served as a clandestine prison during the entirety of the last dictatorship. We heard a talk from a British professor about the role and evolution of oral history and interviews, which was very interesting. In the afternoon we took a tour of the building where the prisoners were kept. It was obviously very strong. I won't go on about it except to say that after reading so much about what happened there it was certainly very strong to see it. It is also very powerful that the space has been transformed into a museum of memory as well as a cultural center- a very powerful re-appropriation. You can read more about it here. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed because of a court order; since the human rights trials are still going on, the building is considered a potential source of evidence.

On Thursday we visited another lugar de memoria: the house of Chicha Mariani. The house was the site of a secret printing press run by the Montoneros, a militant Peronist group that was targeted ferociously by the military junta. Chicha's son and daughter-in-law ran the clandestine press behind a false wall in the garden and lived there with their 3-month-old daughter, Clara Anahí. On November 24, 1976, security forces attacked the house. The six militants inside were killed and Clara Anahí was kidnapped. Since then, Chicha has been searching for her granddaughter, like many other grandmothers who form the group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.

Thursday was the thirty-fourth birthday of Clara Anahí. Several people spoke and read letters expressing their hopes that Clara Anahí would find her true identity soon. There is a theory that the daughter of a major conservative newspaper's owner might be Clara Anahí, although I don't know too much about why they think that. It was incredibly moving to see that this grandmother had never given up hope and is still searching for her lost granddaughter.

We took a tour of the interior of the house, which has been preserved exactly as it was after the attack.

Lauren examines the hole blasted through both the outer and inner wall of the house.

Hole in the inner wall.

Two women greet Chicha Mariani (seated) in the living room. The ceiling was ripped apart by the military forces, searching for hidden weapons, after the attack.

View from the rooftop. The caretakers of the house have constructed a metal structure and glass roof to protect the house from the elements.

The narrow space in the back of the garden where the secret printing press was kept. The press was completely hidden by a false wall.

The only entrance to the printing press was this tiny door, accessed by crawling through the grill.

One of the thousands of bullet holes.




Chicha Mariani (right) talks with a Madre de Plaza de Mayo.



The attendees released balloons with messages for Clara Anahí into the sky.