40 years after the return of democracy in Argentina, an homage to Norita Cortiñas was held at the Esquina América Cultural Center. As part of the talk, three books were presented: “Norita, the Mother of All Battles” by Gerardo Szalkowicz; “The house on 30th Street, a Story of Chicha Mariani” by Laureano Barrera, and “Delia: Bastion of Resistance” by Soledad Iparraguirre.
The three books recall the life story of three human rights advocates: Nora Cortiñas, María Isabel “Chicha” Chorobik de Mariani, and Delia Giovanola.
In her speech, Norita recalled her bond with Chicha. “We were with her a lot, I remember her with great affection,” she said. “I always admired her because Chicha had a character that was devoted to dialogue. She was always in charge of telling Clara Anahí Mariani’s story, and she hoped that she would find her.”
“Never again can the methodology of forced disappearance of people be used as a means of repression. The disappearance of persons is the crime of crimes. When a person is disappeared, they cannot be found and there is no corner where they can be searched for and found,” said Norita.
Norita also highlighted the efforts that mothers, fathers and grandmothers made in search of their loved ones. “We spent many years walking, looking for strategies, to see how to find the exact place where we could find our children and grandchildren.”
In an afternoon full of recognition, emotion, memories, and also laughter, Norita told us about her life and her battles. With the picture of her son Gustavo always on her chest, Norita once again showed how to keep fighting.
“I have a motto which is to never give up, never stop. But I am not as firm as they think. Sometimes I think, what happens if one day I don’t want to get up, if one day I snub the people who think they will always see me smiling. When we mothers organize an action we sing, we dance, we do it to reverse the pain that is inside. That gives us strength,” added Norita.
The human rights leader also spoke about the objective of the last civic, military and ecclesiastical dictatorship with the thousands of political and social militants present at the event. “What they did was to destroy a generation of young people who fought for their homeland, for a dignified life, who were not selfish. Now there are young people like that, who are committed,” she said.
Regarding the current times, Norita said, “Today the people are suffering from hunger, from famine. There are people who cannot bring a plate of food home. We need 30,000 to accompany us all in the streets, to be able to change this destructive economic policy, we are lacking in every march.”
In this regard, Norita criticized the payment of the foreign debt. “I reject the payment of the foreign debt,” she said. “If we don’t pay the foreign debt there would be no more poor people. That debt is not ours, that which the government insists on paying.”
This article was translated from an article originally published on ARGMedios.
