In June 1978, Argentina hosted and won the World Cup championship, 3 to 1 against Holand, and the final game was held in the stadium River Plate, in Buenos Aires. FIFA chose Argentina to hold the world cup in 1966, but in 1976 Argentina fell under the cruelest of its military dictatorships, in which over 30,000 people disappeared. In 1978, when they held the World Cup, the dictatorship was still in full swing. The world protested against the World Cup being held there, and the government used the important, world watched event to distract its citizens and others from its clandestine and deadly actions. When the 1978 Argentine team won the championship, people poured into the streets to celebrate, with government sponsored events and festivities. The government sponsored celebrations for its citizens on one hand and with the other captured and killed their brothers and sisters. There is no better way to distract yourself from the horror of a suffocatingly repressive and deadly government than to win an important soccer game!
On June 30th, 2008, on the 30 year anniversary of this dark world cup victory, the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, along with other human rights organizations held an event in the River Plate Stadium. It was called “La Otra Final”, the “The Other End”.
It was an event to take back the important world cup victory that the government had taken so much advantage of to cover up its dark secrets and to show a different face to its population. The event was specifically not to reprimand the people or the players for celebrating the win, but more importantly to honor those that had disappeared and demonstrate how this world event had been used to cover it up.
The ceremony was held by Las Madres and Las Abuelas de La Plaza de Mayo, along with other human rights organizations and the game was played by two mixed teams consisting of players who had played in the 1978 world cup, members of important human rights organizations, and up and coming young players under the age of 18.
Antonio, Jennifer and I went to the game to support human rights work in Argentina, as well as to check out the famous river stadium. The ceremony was really solemn, the game relatively toned down and was followed by short concert. More fascinating than the activities themselves however, was that there was a recognition of the necessities and lack of human rights on such a massive and public scale. The event was held in the most important stadium in Buenos Aires, and had a lot of star players and public backing. This level of self critique on a massive scale has never taken place in America, even though many governments of ours have hurt just as many citizens (albeit maybe not their own.) It is a fascinating Latin American concept to question the government so heavily, and one that I believe the US could use a little bit of.
Here are a few of the pictures that we took.
