In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

61 2 UBICACIÓN: COSTANERA NORTE A METROS DE CIUDAD UNIVERSITARIA. RECOLETA Over a thousand people crowded into the patio of the school during an unveiling ceremony that revealed a plaque bearing the names of the thirty-four students and two teachers detained and disappeared during the last dictatorship . This event took place On September 17 , 1998, in the Carlos Pellegrini Advanced School of Commerce (Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini ), one of the public high schools that operates under the direction of the University of Buenos Aires (see “Buenos Aires National School, ” p . 43) . An earlier memorial with seven names had been dedicated in 1986 . Sometime later a committee of school alumni undertook an investigation to complete the list . An exhibit was opened on the second floor of the school during the 1998 unveiling ceremony that narrated the victims’ life stories . The school’s principal Leonardo Abraham Gak gave a speech during the ceremony . The unveiling took place one day after the anniversary of La Noche de los lápices (Night of the pencils), an army operation led by General Ramón Camps on September 16, 1976, that involved the kidnapping and disappearance of a group of high school students from the city of La Plata . These activists from the Union of Secondary School Students* (UES, Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios) had been organizing around a number of issues, including subsidized bus fares for students . The film Flores de septiembre (September flowers), directed by Pablo Osores, Roberto Testa, and Nicolás Wainszelbaum, was produced in collaboration with Memoria Abierta . In this film Roberto Escribal, principal of Carlos Pellegrini School from the beginning of the post-dictatorship period until 1991, recalls, “Ten days after I was appointed, a Federal Police officer came and asked me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, 37 . Carlos Pellegrini Advanced School of Commerce LOCATION: MARCELO T. DE ALVEAR 1851 TRANSPORTATION: BUSES: 12, 29, 37, 39, 60, 75, 99, 101, 106, 109, 111, 124, 132, 140, 150, 152. SUBWAY STATION: CALLAO (D LINE). M. T. de Alvear Av. Santa Fe Arenales Paraguay Av. Córdoba Viamonte Av. Ca llao R. Peñ a Mon tevid eo Para ná Rio bam ba Ay acu cho Jun ín U ri b u ru A z c u é n a g a L a rr e a P a Piz zur no Est. Callao Est. Fac. de Medicina LÍNEA D 37 CARLOS PELLEGRINI ADVANCED SCHOOL OF COMMERCE. 62 for the names of the kids who were on the Student Union . I asked him how he dared to ask me such a thing, and he responded that it was the norm, and that he was just following routine procedures” [AA] . Cultural and educational policies under state terrorism Carlos Mora, who was a teacher during the dictatorship, describes the documents that the military government distributed to the schools: “Teachers were given lists of texts that were not just discouraged, but outright banned for use in the schools . . . . So, as teachers, we just focused on the routine aspects of our jobs: giving classes and trying to stay out of trouble . Documents were circulated in many of the public schools instructing us on how to identify subversives and how to interact with them in the school environment . We were told to pay attention to students’ questions . If we noticed ‘dissociative’ thoughts, as they were called at the time, we were to inform the school principal . ” Under the direction of Juan José Catalán, the Ministry of Education published a leaflet during the dictatorship titled “Subversion in the Education Sector (We Must Know Our Enemy)” (Subversión en el ámbito educativo [conozcamos a nuestro enemigo]). It was obligatory reading for all teachers . An internal Armed Forces document signed by Guillermo Suárez Mason (see “Patricios First Infantry Regiment, ” p . 74) described the steps to be taken by the repressive forces in the “annihilation of subversion . ” A special section focused on “Psychological Action , ” with details on the “targets” that had come under military scrutiny: television channels, radio stations, publishing houses, and various cultural media, including plays, films, books, and newspapers . The pamphlet “Subversion in the Education Sector” included the following instructions relating to institutions of secondary and postsecondary education: “a . Subversive activities aim to develop in students a personality that is hostile to society, to authority figures, and to all the fundamental principles and institutions that sustain them: spiritual, religious, and moral values, the Armed Forces , the organization of economic...

Share