Diaries, magazines and letters, another way of telling the Malvinas war

Clippings and headlines from the most important newspapers and magazines of the time, in contrast to the letters sent by the young soldiers to their families, the most human view of the 1982 conflict, accumulate these days in Buenos Aires.

On the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the Falklands War, the Library of Congress of Argentina is looking for another way to recount that tear.

This space considered the Malvinas feat from a cultural prism: the war and the claim for sovereignty of the island territory are more than enough reasons to incorporate it into the system of beliefs, values ​​and behaviors that make up Argentine society.

The exhibition tells the 1982 confrontation between Argentina and the United Kingdom from two points of view.

The first is a historical tour through graphic compilations, with the local media as a reflection of the conflict, along with its diplomatic details around the world.

However, the information passed through the military filter, given that the military junta, then chaired by Leopoldo Galtieri, allowed only a handful of public media correspondents to accompany the Armed Forces to the islands.

The cover of the magazine ‘People and Current Affairs’, dated May 6, 1982, under the headline “We are wining”expresses that “Official version”. You see a photo of several Argentine soldiers, body on the ground about to shoot and under the legend: “Tuesday. 4:10 p.m. Port Darwin, Falkland Islands. Argentine soldiers await possible landing. However, only one air attack is recorded. “Two English planes are shot down.”

Four days earlier, the United Kingdom had sunk the cruiser ARA General Belgrano, outside the exclusion area established by the British Government, causing the death of 323 naval personnel, although there was no mention of the event in the entire issue.

“The Malvinas exhibition is intended as a turning point in our history, approaching it as a cultural fact, with the possibility of giving a historiographical tour of what it was, what it meant and the approach taken by the media,” Sebastián Calderón, a member of the Library of Congress team, explains to EFE.

The selection of each journalistic article gives an account of the geopolitical context, which begins with the landing in the Malvinas Islands, on April 2, 1982, through the arrival of the British and the political weakness of the Military Junta, after signing the surrender on June 14 of that year.

The exhibition focuses on the narrative construction of the media. “This part dialogues with the second axis of the exhibition: the letters that the Malvinas soldiers sent to their families. They give a totally different vision”emphasizes Calderón.

Letters

The second part portrays a more human sample: letters and telegrams that young recruits sent to their loved ones were framed and hung on the walls of the Library.

“One of the letters that caught my attention the most, and even made me laugh, is that of a soldier who tells his family that he is very proud and happy to work as a postman in the war. He had to walk four kilometers every day to collect and deliver the mail of his comrades. In the midst of so much tragedy, it is remarkable that someone was happy to be a messenger.”recalls Calderón.

For years, the Library’s epistolary documentation center has collected all types of material related to Argentine participation in the Malvinas. “They are an unobjectionable first-person source of what the situation was like for the soldiers on the islands,” he adds.

Although the soldiers also passed through the military checkpoint, between the lines each message perfectly describes the inhospitable place where they were, fighting more against the cold and hunger than against the enemy. A parallel to how far the media was from reality.

The war ended 74 days later with 649 total casualties on the Argentine side, 255 from the United Kingdom and three island civilians. The military defeat further combined the widespread discontent of society with the military government, which was forced to call elections and hand over power.

The fight over the Malvinas continues in democracy through diplomatic demands, despite the British refusal to resume talks before the United Nations and international organizations. Far from the offices, the Malvinas issue, in Argentina, is cultural.

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