Esteban Echeverría with activities on March 24. National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice Protests Mark Coup in 1976, the last and bloodiest of the history of Argentina and the 30 000 victims of state terrorism.
censorship and book burning during the military dictatorship
"Where we start burning books, burning ends
men"
(Heinrich Heine) by Fernando
ANRED Ruffa in addition
systematic abduction and disappearance of social movements and the consolidation of the foundations of economic plan Martinez de Hoz, the last military dictatorship also carried out a clear policy of disappearance and replacement of much literary production of the time. "First there was a political assessment of the book, and then came the censorship, it was a tool of political control in state hands. There was no improvisation, no whim. They knew what they were doing," says the researcher Hernan Invernizzi.
Biblioclastas: cultural genocide
The generic term (and little known) used to refer to the burners of books is "biblioclastas," and there throughout the whole story, in all tyranny and dictatorship any. The bibloclastas eliminate the evidence of a history, a past, a thought, and this amounts to the elimination almost in effect, of a population.
Generally, when speaking of the last military dictatorship is associated almost exclusively with physical repression and systematic plan of disappearance and suppression exerted by the military government on popular fighters in the field, and the application of the economic base installed to neoliberalism in Argentina.
But the self-styled "National Reorganization Process" also had among its objectives the disappearance and the burning of a large number of books whose contents were labeled as "subversive", carrying out yet another form of genocide, cultural genocide. Perhaps because they knew that, as stated León Gieco in his unforgettable "Iron Men", "men who move can kill / but the thoughts remain." And the books are essential tools for transmission, in his capacity gearbox.
military government allocated many resources to the creation of an incredible infrastructure for this task. "Censorship and cultural control were not only centralized, but were clearly concentrated at the Interior Ministry, which was the major driver of culture in Argentina, where he worked the National Directorate of Publications. This building, which still Moreno is in the street 711, at the intersection of Diagonal Moreno is a great building. If Today we look at it from the outside we're going to find the piece of infrastructure that had been doing this, and it was the only unit dedicated to this task, "said Hernan Invernizzi researcher who, along with Judith Gociol wrote" A blow to the books "(edited by EUDEBA in 2002), dealing with this issue.
The myth of the" military idiots "
A widespread idea in society today is that the military were all gross and the censorship that powered the books respond to ignorance or caprice of a sergeant or a commissioner ignorant fool. This myth originated from the fact that some books were banned by misinterpretations of their titles, as was the case "The Cuba electrolyte (physics book), censored because it contained the word" Cuba "in its title (" Cuba "rectangular container for chemical operations), or the case of" Five Fingers "which was written a children's book in West Germany, where he pursues a green hand to the fingers of one red, to defend and defeat, joins and forms a red fist. For this last work was held 127 days to "provision of the Executive," the director of Ediciones de la Flor, Daniel Divinsky, with the editor Kuki Miler.
Although, why not also think as a general policy of terror that I wanted to show the military government as a band of lunatics who could suppress any intellectual or editorial, even if not militant, as the case of Ediciones de la Flor, who was, at best, an editorial "progressive"?
We think that terror works when it is not clear which is the code or standard with which to work. If it appears that repression is random, then terrorize us all and become paralyzed. With the culture seems to operate in this respect: they made a systematic, and taking political decisions, to produce also an effect on the general culture of terror.
To Invernizzi, those cases seemed to respond to ignorance, caprice or paranoia of the military censors, were only isolated incidents which did not meet the general, and folklore are not the most important part of the topic: "The operation of the censorship was extremely simple, efficient and tidy. The criterion was: no censorship for the sake of , for fall guy because it's wrong or left-handed, because it is communist or combative Peronist. Behind every act of censorship of books was an investigation of the book. Many of these investigations to find. Sometimes the report on the book are three pages, and sometimes up to forty. These reports were written by intellectuals, professionals, teachers of letters, lawyers, sociologists, anthropologists. People smart, capable and ready. And one of these studies were surprised because it is more than acceptable intellectual level. Moreover, in general, we should say they were right in what they said, they were right. From the point of view of the class interests of the dictatorship and its ideological project, the books that they identified as "hazardous" or as representatives of critical thinking, to put it in some way, were correctly identified, they were right. Then, after these reports were to the General Directorate of Publications, where he took the policy decision. They discriminated between the analysis and what to do with the analysis. Discriminate between knowledge and the political use knowledge. First there was a political assessment of the book, and then came the censorship, it was a tool of political control in state hands. There was no improvisation, no caprice. They knew very well what they did. "
And all this policy was intended not only to censor and destroy a part of literary production in Argentina and foreign military considered" subversive ", but also to try to" fill "the gap cultural goods destined to its project for society based on the premise that "state, religion and family." The dictatorship had a cultural policy based on a systematic plan of persecution a certain type of culture, and "substitution" of one type of culture on the other. - Continues the researcher Invernizzi - Some documents of the illegal repression, some of whom got out of the destruction, explaining how censoring, how to control, how to ban, and also how to create and develop a cultural replacement policy. And sometimes, when military leaders realized that their advisers or intellectual censors passed from mambo to right, are rectified, but to modernize its technique of cultural repression. "
" Caring "children
One focuses on where the de facto government paid more attention in the textbooks was and children, as they felt it was their moral obligation to spare the children of those books that, in his view, were questioning sacred values \u200b\u200bsuch as family, religion or country. Much of this control was exercised through the school.
To this end, the military government created a commission of censorship, and begins to circulate documents publicly. In 1977, the Ministry of Culture and Education issues circular "Subversion in education (know your enemy), which reported the following: "(...)
3.
nursery and primary
a. subversive activities will be developed through teachers ideologically raised that impact on the minds of young students, encouraging the development of ideas or rebellious behavior, suitable for action to be developed at higher levels. B.
Communication takes place directly, through informal discussions and by reading and commenting on stories published for that purpose biased. In this regard it has been noted in recent times a notorious Marxist offensive in the area of \u200b\u200bchildren's literature. (...) "
addition, the military government, with the signature of the Chief of Army, Roberto Viola, makes circular instructions of Operation Clarity", aimed at detecting and kidnap literature considered "Marxist" and to identify teachers who advised "subversive books." The indications included taking into account the following:
"(1) Title of the text and editorial, (2) Subject and course in which it is used, (3) educational establishment in which it found, (4 ) Teachers who imposed it or advised, (5) If possible, add a copy of the text. Otherwise, photocopies of some pages, which is proven to be subversive, (6) Estimated number of students who use ( 7) Any other aspect considered of interest. "
today is very difficult to make a list of banned books because there was censorship Partial. There were books that were banned in an area of \u200b\u200bthe country and not another. For example, Resolution No. 480 of Ministry of Culture and Education of Cordoba banned at the time "The tower of cubes" by Laura Devetach, arguing that his analysis came off "serious shortcomings such as unclear symbols, questions ideological and social objectives not appropriate to aesthetics, boundless imagination, lack of spiritual impulses and important (...) criticizes the organization of work, private property and the principle of authority. " Then, later, its reach nationwide ban.
Another case most memorable was the book "An elephant takes up much space," the writer Elsa Bornemann, which recounted an animal strike, which was banned by a decree on October 13, 1977, which also included "Birth, children and the love of Agnes Rosenstiehl, and it was banned because they considered the title and the contents were too suggestive for the children. The military decree stated that "in both cases these stories aimed at children, with a purpose of indoctrination that is preparatory to the task of capturing ideological subversive activities (...) Their analysis raises a position which offends the morality, the Church, the family, human beings and the society he composed. "burning books
The final destination of many banned books was then burned in a pit, a common fire. Although there were many other cases, the largest book burning Argentina's dictatorship, that is, the paradigmatic, was suffered by the Center for Latin America Editor, who had founded Boris Spivacow. On August 30, 1980 the Buenos Aires police burned in a vacant lot Sarandi and a half million copies of label, removed from deposits by federal court order in La Plata, Héctor Gustavo de la Serna.
"Books Sarandí tank burned for three days some had been stacked and were moist and not well lit. The library where I worked, New Encyclopedia of the World Youth, was burned in full. I remember one of the issues, history of feudalism, there was a prince who is not finished burning. The poor guy was an effeminate prince half full of flowers that resisted the fire, "says the writer Graciela Cabal, which at that time was the secretary of writing the encyclopedia.
burned so on that as other fires, many books by various authors of all kinds, including Trotsky, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Marx, Fidel Castro, Peron, Mao Tse Tung, Enrique Medina, Blas Matamorro, Griselda Gambaro, among many others.
"Up to 76 'Argentina was the best-selling literature. Then, it becomes suspect. In addition, the writers stop writing about reality. And when democracy returned, it was never possible to restore the relationship between Argentina and public literature. And marketing today burns more than fire. The 90 'completed the project that sought to impose in the 70's "looks, just the writer Ana María Shua.
Perhaps thinking about what the market offers today "Argentine readership" and "literature": self-help, spiritual, new age religions and the occult, which obviously have nothing to do with that old word used by the military to define literature worthy of being controlled, the "subversive."
In this sense, it never hurts to return at the end its true meaning. "Subversive": adj. Able to subvert. Subvert: tr. Upset, stir, alter a given state of affairs, especially in a moral sense. Does not sound like trying to change the world?
