Photos: Disappeared in Argentina
For many Argentine authors currently presenting themselves at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the military dictatorship and its consequences are the big literary topic. From 1976 to 1983, a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla ruled the South American country. 30,000 people have disappeared during this time. The military and police persecuted students, intellectuals and opposition activists. They were abducted, tortured, murdered. The victims were buried in mass graves. Some of them were stunned from planes dropped over the Río de la Plata. Many relatives still do not know how their disappeared lives.
What emptiness arises when people are suddenly torn from their lives, shows the photo project of the Argentine Gustavo Germano. He was looking for old photos in family albums of disappeared people from his home region Entre Ríos and recreated them about 30 years later. His pictures make it clear how the terror of the military dictatorship destroyed families and friendships in a way that is as simple as it is haunting. Like Laura Cecilia Méndez Oliva.
Disappeared: Leticia Margarita Oliva and Orlando René Méndez
The last memory Laura Cecilia Méndez has of her mother Leticia is almost 30 years ago. It is December 27, 1978. An armed command storms her house, Leticia Margarita Oliva is beaten up and taken away. Her daughter Laura is barely three years old then. She can not remember her father Orlando at all. He was a member of the "Peronist Movement Montonero", a city guerrilla who fought against the military dictatorship of General Videlas. On October 21, 1976, he was abducted along with Laura. On the way to the infamous secret prison "Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada" in Buenos Aires, he dies. Laura, then eleven months old, ends up in a nursery. Days later, her mother finds the child and moves away with her: to another city, to the supposed security.
1973: Father Andrés Servín trusts Raúl María Caire and Luisa Ines Rodriguez. 2006: Andrés Servín and Lusia Ines Rodriguez.
Disappeared: Raúl María Caire
On February 24, 1973, Raúl and Luisa marry. Because Raúl is involved in the left Peronist youth, he gets targeted by the paramilitary group "Alianza Anticomunista Argentina". One year after his wedding, assassins place a bomb under his car. He survives and dives, his wife and little sons Ariel and Adrián follow him to the city of Resistencia. On 2 November 1976, the family is kidnapped. After ten days of torture, Raúl María Caire is murdered on 13 December in the so-called "massacre of Margarita Belén" along with 21 other opposition forces of the military. His wife Luisa and the children are released after two and a half months.
1975: Omar Dario Amestoy and his brother Mario Alfredo Amestoy. 2006: Mario Alfredo Amestoy.
Disappeared: Omar Dario Amestoy
The brothers Omar and Mario went fishing and barbecuing with their families when the picture was taken. They come from a family of textile dealers. Omar has a law degree, works at Nogoyá's vehicle registration office, and works for socially disadvantaged families. Omar, his wife María del Carmen Fettolini and his two children, the five-year-old María Eugenia and the three-year-old Fernando, die during the "massacre of the street Juan B. Justo" in San Nicolás de los Arroyos. It is carried out by units of the Argentine military, the Federal Police and the police of Buenos Aires.
The book
Disappeared the photo project Ausencias by Gustavo Germano with texts on the dictatorship in Argentina 1976 - 1983
Munich Spring Verlag 128 pages, flap brochure 28.90 euros
