Argentines Remember the Napalpi Massacre in 1924
Collage in memory of the survivors of the Napalpi Massacre. Photo: X/ @maruska
July 19, 2024 Hour: 10:33 am
A ‘Truth Trial’ held in 2022 declared the events that took place in Napalpi as crimes against humanity.
On July 19, 1924, the security forces of the Argentine state murdered 700 people from the Qom and Mocoi Indigenous communities, thus initiating the extinction of a large part of their language, culture, and history.
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For decades, survivors kept this history silent out of fear of reprisals, but a few years ago, some agreed to recount to one of their own what they had lived through. In 2022, the federal judiciary of the province of Chaco held a “truth trial,” declaring the events that took place in Napalpi as crimes against humanity.
A Long Silence
One of the main drivers behind the recovery of this collective memory was the Indigenous historian Juan Chico, who captured not only the story of the massacre but also the history of his people in his books, “The Voice of the Blood” and “The Voices of Napalpi.”
Chico investigated why his community had abandoned the use of their native language, unlike nearby communities that continued using it. He began an inquiry and found the survivors of the massacre.
“Many resisted speaking, but many others agreed to tell the story,” said David Garcia, a translator, interpreter, and professor of the Qom language who worked with Chico on translating his books.
Chico helped them regain their voice, the identity of a people who convey all their culture and history orally and who had been deprived of it, Garcia pointed out.
“Years of oppression, years of silence, years of not being heard, of not being able to speak about their culture,” reflects the professor, who, along with the historian, conducted countless workshops so that people could resume using their mother tongue.
Both were founding members of the Napalpi Foundation, an organization that promotes the teaching of the language, history, and culture of the communities and that pushed for the truth trial. Thanks to this work, the testimonies of the centenarians Rosa Grillo, Melitona Enrique, and Pedro Balquinta managed to rewrite the history of the community.
“No one ever spoke about what happened, only now are we talking about it,” said the late Grillo in her statement.
The Day of the Massacre
Long before the massacre, Napalpi was already an ancestral place for the communities, but the expansion of the agricultural frontier by the national government transformed it into a desirable territory for the cotton business.
In 1924, the Indigenous communities living in the area and working the fields demanded fair compensation for the harvest from the Creole landowners. To silence the claim, the then-governor ordered repression.
On July 19, gathered in anticipation of a meeting with the official, the inhabitants were taken by surprise and gunned down: “They were not prepared for a confrontation, but for dialogue because that was the state’s commitment,” Garcia emphasizes.
“It was the most terrifying process in our community. That day marked the beginning of the silencing in the streets, not speaking the language,” the Qom language specialist emphasizes.
“And it was very difficult for them to recover it. Speaking the language meant being persecuted again. It was very difficult, but today we are grateful for their effort because they took control of the history, regained cultural values, and reclaimed the language,” Garcia states.
Acts of Reparation
Regarding acts of reparation, Garcia comments that there are already some, such as the creation and dissemination of the anniversary and the events, but he believes there is still much to be done.
Gustavo Gomez, a member of the working group for the memorial inaugurated in 2020 as part of Chaco’s policy of vindicating Indigenous rights and historical reparation, celebrates the outcome of the trial but laments that often everything remains in words.
“Sometimes it hurts. Nothing for the community’s needs, it hurts because we are experiencing the Napalpí Massacre in another way. We reached 100 years and we are still in that era. Constitutionally, we gained many rights, but in practice, we don’t see them,” he adds and remembers that they will continue in the struggle.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: EFE
