Author
lotus
DJ Lotus interviews Virginia Giannoni, an artist who is in San Diego with her photography exhibit, Poesia Diarias, about the 30,000 disappeared in Argentina. They talk about the dictatorship, the IMF and the current movements in Argentina.
Here's the press release about the exhibit:
EXHIBITION COMMEMORATING ARGENTINA'S 30,000 "DISAPPEARED"
TO OPEN AT MISSION VALLEY BRANCH LIBRARY
"Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry," an art installation, poetry translation
project, and other events related to the fate of Argentina's 30,000
"Disappeared," will open April 3 at the Mission Valley Branch Library and
continue though May 28. A reception for the public will be held Sunday,
April 10, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the library's Community Room and
Gallery. The Mission Valley Branch Library is located at 2123 Fenton
Parkway, next to the Ikea store and the Fenton Parkway trolley stop.
Library hours are Monday thru Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information about "Poesía
Diaria", the public can call (619) 692-0394 or visit the library's website
at www.sandiego.gov/public-library/memory.shtml. The library can be reached
at (858) 573-5007. All events related to "Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry"
are free of charge.
The creator of "Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry" is Virginia Giannoni of
Buenos Aires. Giannoni is a well-known journalist and artist whose
dedication to human rights issues and Argentina's "Disappeared" has become
paramount. She will arrive in San Diego in early April and deliver lectures
at San Diego State University Library and the Mission Valley Branch of the
San Diego Public Library.
Almost thirty years have passed since a military junta overthrew
Argentina's democratically elected government on March 24, 1976.
Immediately after assuming power, the junta embarked on a campaign to wipe
out its opponents. In a six-year reign of terror to cleanse the country of
"subversives," nearly 30,000 people, including students, young workers, and
intellectuals, as well as bystanders with no political agenda, vanished
without a trace. Subsequently they became known as "desaparecidos," the
Spanish word for "the disappeared."
In 1983, after democracy was restored, a national commission was appointed
to investigate the fate of the Disappeared. Its report revealed the
systematic abductions of men, women (some pregnant), and children; the
existence of about 340 well-organized secret detention centers; and the
methodic use of torture and murder. According to former president, Carlos
Menem, records of the atrocities were destroyed by the military, following
the 1982 Falklands War. Most of the victim's families have been unable to
recover the bodies of their loved ones and the perpetrators of the crimes
have not been brought to justice.
The exhibition/installation component of "Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry"
will consist of a series of vertical banners arranged edge to edge and
bearing approximately 600 black and white photographs of individuals who
disappeared. Each image, paired with a commemorative poem written by the
victim's friends or family members, was selected by Giannoni from tributes
that appear annually in Página 12, a Buenos Aires daily. The visual and
emotional impact of these newspaper images and recordatorios, with each
face and poem opening the door to an untold story, is unforgettable. At the
Mission Valley Branch Library, members of the public who are bilingual
(English and Spanish) will be encouraged to translate these poems, which,
in turn, will be entered into a database available worldwide on the
Internet. Those fluent in other languages will also be welcome to translate.
A major force in bringing "Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry" to San Diego is
the founder of The Survival of the Collective Memory Project, Joan
Lindgren. Lindgren, a longtime San Diego resident, is a frequent visitor to
Argentina. She is also an author, teacher, poet, and internationally
recognized translator of Latin American and Spanish poetry. Her critically
acclaimed and best-known book, Unspeakable Tenderness: Selected Poems of
Juan Gelman (University of California Press, 1997), is the definitive
English translation of Gelman's poems. Gelman, Argentina's leading poet and
one of the greatest contemporary writers in the Spanish language, is the
father-in-law of María Claudia García Irureta Goyena de Gelman, one of the
most celebrated cases in the annals of the Disappeared. María Claudia was
eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time she and her husband, Marcelo
Ariel (Gelman's son), were kidnapped in Buenos Aires by members of the
Uruguayan military. Marcelo was murdered immediately and María Claudia was
never seen again, although, 23 years later, her child (a daughter) was
safely recovered.
Lindgren is currently writing Translating Argentina, an account of her
travels in Argentina, including translations of testimonials given by the
mothers and children of the Disappeared. Lindgren will deliver a lecture on
the cultural evolution and meaning of the tango, Argentina's national
dance. The lecture will accompany a tango demonstration by San Diego's
leading tango artists, El Mundo del Tango.
The Mission Valley Branch Library is the first stop on an international
tour of "Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry." Related events will include film
screenings, lectures, and tango demonstrations and workshops. A complete
schedule of these events will be available at
www.sandiego.gov/public-library/memory.shtml.
"Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry" has relevance to anyone interested in
literature, modern history, or the struggle for human rights, including the
tens of millions worldwide who have lost friends and relatives in similar
situations. Space in the exhibition will be reserved for San Diegans to
post photographs and poems honoring their own "disappeared."
"Poesía Diaria/Everyday Poetry" is sponsored by The Survival of the
Collective Memory Project; San Diego State University: Library and
Departments of Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese; and the
Visual Arts Program of the San Diego Public Library.
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