Wednesday, 3rd February, Rio Gallegos: Malvinas/Falklands veterans
Day starts with an email – we’re front page of El Patagonico!
When we crossed the border into Argentina, we discussed the type of couples we wanted to talk to in this country. And from the beginning, we knew that we wanted to investigate the other side of the Falklands story.
The Falklands War started on Friday, 2 April 1982 with the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982. The war lasted 74 days, and resulted in the deaths of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders. It is the most recent conflict to be fought by the UK without any allied states and the only Argentine war since the 1880s.
The Argentine soldiers were largely young conscripts from across the country. Fearing a long siege, the Argentine army restricted food supplies to its soldiers and there are many stories of huge cruelty within the Argentinian army. Many of the young men were sent to fight against the British trained forces with only 2 hours of training on how to work their guns. Mike recalls, in his military training at school, the leader of the training talking about the horror of having mortally bayonetted an Argentine soldier in a Falklands trench during combat.
The memory of the war is very alive in Patagonia. In fact, it’s very alive in the whole of Argentina, but throughout Patagonia, there are monuments, flags and signs proclaiming “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”. Talk to anyone and they have an opinion about it. People talk about the war and its memory as an open wound.
We phoned the biggest veterans’ association in the state of Santa Cruz, based in Rio Gallegos, the Asociacion Centro de Veteranos de Guerra de Malvinas “Soldado Jose H. Ortega” (named after the first soldier from the Santa Cruz province to fall) and they invited us to their headquarters for 1.30pm today.
We arrive at the small building, expecting to meet with a secretary, explain what we are doing, him suggest a couple, then we arrange a meeting. Not at all. We enter the small room to find it full to bursting with men sitting around a table, perhaps 20 of them. The walls of the room are covered with black and white photos, posters, photos of faces, the paraphernalia of war, flags. I find it very emotional, to be honest. 
The idea of war is so horrific, and these men are all still relatively young (in their late 40s, early 50s) even nearly 30 years after the war. Something about the fact that they are there, laughing and chatting, unified by the horrors of an experience which changed every one of them 28 years ago, and they have welcomed us - from the nation which they fought against - into their sanctuary, makes my eyes well up. I find it very emotional, and I choke as I talk. Later they explain that the war was politically motivated, it’s not individuals they have a problem with.
It’s not immediately clear what is going on. It turns out that it’s a press conference, eventually. A local man is going to run a marathon on the Falklands islands for the veterans, and they’ve called a press conference. So we’re part of the press for a bit. It’s a bit confusing.
Finally, the crowd clears and we ask about couples. There are two couples in the room, and both agree to be interviewed. One married after the war, the other before.
Rosy and Fernando met 3 years after the war. Fernando was 19 during the war, and was a professional soldier rather than a conscript. They met at a dance, she liked the cut of his jib. They started going out and married after 3 years, they have 5 children.
Fernando says that the hideousness of war has made him appreciate every minute that he has. He says that post-Malvinas war, many couples divorced. He said that men were so affected by the war that they simply couldn’t care about their wives. He says “I’m lucky that she understands me. The pain that we have stays with us. The wound that we have does not bleed, but it’s deep within us. And as time goes by, with her and with my kids and my grandchildren of the future, our life becomes increasingly positive”.
She says that as a couple, they are three: him, her and the Malvinas. The war is something which is always with them, and she has become very active in the association too. They continue the fight to return the Malvinas to the Argentina.
Teresa and Nicolas have been married 30 years. They were married before the war, and Teresa had a 2 year old son and a 3 month old baby when war broke out and Nicolas had to leave to fight. He, like Fernando was a professional soldier. He’s older than Fernando and was a higher rank. (One of the things that the association says is that here in Santa Cruz, they are all friends, rank doesn’t matter – whereas in other provinces, ranks of veterans often only associate with other vets of the same rank).
Nicolas and Teresa both thought that he was leaving for a training exercise. It was only when he had gone, and she was taking the two baby boys back up to be with her family that she saw the demonstrations of support for the soldiers and the Malvinas cause. She couldn’t believe it, she felt vulnerable and alone. She starts to cry at the memory and Nicolas puts his arm around her and holds her head close to him.
He was able to send her postcards every two weeks. There was one point when she had no news of him and again, she sobs at the memory and said that she thought he was dead.
When he got back, he didn’t want to talk about what he had gone through. Still, to this day, when his children ask him about the war, he tells them to go and talk to Fernando and other friends from the veterans association.
They say that the biggest thing that they have is their children. Like Fernando, Nicolas agrees that after what he has been through, he realises what is important in his life. His children – 6 of them – are his whole world.
