On June 16, 1955, the largest military attack against civilians in Argentine history occurred: the bombing of the Plaza de Mayo, a massacre that resulted in three hundred and eight deaths and an uncertain number of injuries, estimated to be between eight hundred and one thousand two hundred. It was an attempted coup against Juan Domingo Perón organized by a faction of the Navy. The episode represents a central event in the narrative of the Peronist resistance, but at the same time it has been undermined as if it were an attack aimed solely at Peronism and not democracy.
Emiliano Maitía is one of the people responsible for Hotel de Ideas, a publishing house specializing in original comics, adaptations and titles on various themes. Maitía wrote the screenplay for a recently published work, Chronicles of the Bombing, a comic illustrated by Federico Di Pila. With fiction and historical rigor, it offers an approach to a fact that can never be told enough.
See. “Comics allow us to do many things when telling stories that are not so easy in other languages,” Maitía tells PERFIL. “The interaction between words and images, the manipulation of time, the communication of ideas in graphic form, or the ability to show in pictures things like the bombing itself, using all the impact that a drawing can have, something that, if told on film, would require significant production and cost.”
Authoritarians don’t like that
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a mainstay of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe that they are the owners of the truth.
—While researching “Chronicles of the Bombing,” did you have any surprises about what you already knew?
-Yes. That Catholicism was not as present as the previous context of the bombing suggests, with the confrontation between Perón and the church and the famous inscription “Christ Conquers” that the bombs and planes had painted. I also realized that a large part of the massacre was the Marine Corps shooting at the civilians. Several of the situations described are based on statements from Navy personnel who report their own actions or those of others.
— Were you able to get closer to the reasons for the 1955 coup?
“I think there are several, and since the bombing took place, the Perón government itself and even the civilian population could not place the event into a clear area of the historical narrative.” For this reason, Chronicles of the Bombing ends with a quote from Estela de Carlotto, reflecting on how citizens may or may not consider the possibility of rejecting a crime, even if we are not direct victims. And about the consequences that these decisions can have in the future.
—How do you think history dealt with the bombing?
—It is an episode that awakens a certain resistance to reading. Depending on the time, it was hushed up or told from a certain distance. So-called national liberalism seems to try to ignore this, just like radicalism or Catholicism; all sectors are accomplices or perpetrators. Not to mention the Navy with its involvement in subsequent coups and dictatorships. Peronism sees it as a crossroads in its history, a prelude to what was called resistance.
—How do Argentine comics fit in with your own tradition?
– He rests in it while he talks about it. Especially with the memory of the golden age of comic magazines, which spanned much of the 20th century. In addition, there are numerous trade fairs nationwide where you can get in touch with several local publishers who offer their publications.
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