Memories of Buenos Aires: Signs of State Terrorism in Argentina

65. Trees in Avenida San Juan

93 3 SAN CRISTÓBAL LOCATION: 1800 TO 2700 AV. SAN JUAN TRANSPORTATION: BUSES: 4, 6, 12, 23, 37, 41, 50, 53, 61, 84, 95, 96, 97, 101, 102, 111, 126, 129, 143, 150, 151, 168, 188. SUBWAY STATIONS: ENTRE RÍOS, PICHINCHA, AND JUJUY (E LINE). LÍNEA E Estados Unidos Carlos Calvo Humberto I Av. San Juan Cochabamba Constitución Pavón Av. Independencia 65 Est. Entre Ríos Pic hin ch inc ha Pa sc o Rin cón Sa ran dí Co mb . de los Po zo s Av. Entre Ríos Solís Virrey Ceballos Pte. L. Sáenz Peña Seventy-eight trees planted along more than twenty blocks of Avenida San Juan honor the disappeared of the neighborhood of San Cristóbal . Each jacaranda tree pays tribute to a person who lived, was politically active, or was kidnapped in the neighborhood . The initiative was launched by the association San Cristóbal Residents Against Impunity, which has also published a book containing the life stories of all the people disappeared from the neighborhood . According to the group, this work serves to perpetuate “their names, their stories, and their struggles for a fair, united, and free country” (2008) . The association emerged in 1997 , when it carried out an escrache* (shaming protest) against neighborhood resident Héctor Vergés, a former intelligence agent who had participated in the repression . The group’s members have worked since then to strengthen memory in the neighborhood . Their goal was to make “the sidewalks where [the neighborhood’s disappeared] walked . . . speak about them . ” As they describe in the book, even though it was difficult to find all the names and addresses, it was far more challenging to collect testimonies : “Some days were hopeless, while others gave us strength . ” They knocked on doors, “asking the oldest residents, delving into the memory of the neighborhood” to put together each and every story . The association got help from human rights organizations and from the archive of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons* (CONADEP , Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparici ón de Personas; see “Nunca Más Square and Cultural Center, ” p . 186) . The Subsecretariat of Human Rights of the City of Buenos Aires and the Department of Green Spaces also provided assistance . Ever since it began, the association San Cristóbal Residents Against 65 .Trees in Avenida San Juan A WOMAN READS A PLAQUE HONORING ONE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD’S DISAPPEARED. 94 Impunity has worked to make public the memory of those who were kidnapped in the neighborhood, including the writer Rodolfo Walsh, whose kidnapping site was marked by the association (see “Corner of San Juan and Entre Ríos, ” p . 96) . The group’s members have also worked on legal claims and demands for justice . They erected a ceramic portrait of Julio López in the Miramar bar at the corner of San Juan and Sarandí Streets . López, a survivor of disappearance during the dictatorship, disappeared again after testifying in court in 2006 . This tile work was donated by workers from the Factory without Bosses (FaSinPat, or Fábrica sin Patrones, formerly known as Zanon), which has operated as a workerrun cooperative since 2001 . These residents also succeeded in expropriating the building on Virrey Cevallos Street (see p . 36) that had operated as a Clandestine Detention Center during the dictatorship . It was recovered as a space of remembrance . More than three hundred people gathered for a ceremony on March 24, 2004, to dedicate the trees that had been planted and to commemorate the neighborhood ’s disappeared . After the speeches were over, they visited each tree and read out the name of the person to whom it was dedicated, calling out, “Here with us, now and forever . ” Attacks Yet signs of intolerance soon surfaced, and those who opposed the commemoration chose an especially harsh way to express their disagreement . Just a few days after the ceremony, vandals cut down thirty-two of the trees and destroyed several of the stones bearing the names of the disappeared . 95 Faced with these attacks, the association of San Cristóbal Residents Against Impunity filed a legal complaint and organized a march . Then-President Nestor Kirchner condemned the vandalism through the General Secretariat of the Presidency and the Human Rights Secretariat . Although the attacks continued, the association decided to continue replacing trees and stones whenever necessary . The meaning associated with public landmarks...