Nora Cortinas, the mother of all battles, has died. She died at the age of 94

Nora Cortinas It is not just one: it is the mother who screams in front of the camera, the one who wears the white scarf on her head, the one who wears the green scarf on her wrist, the one who plays ball, the one who gets on the motorcycle, the one who walks with her stick with flowers or the one who allows herself to be driven in a wheelchair. She is the woman who continued to go to the Plaza de Mayo until her last days – to the place where she ended up in May 1977 with the hope of getting back her son kidnapped by the dictatorship. Nora Cortinas, who He died this Thursday at the age of 94Eternal in the memory of the Argentine people who seek truth and justice.

He was born on 22 March 1930, They called her Nora Irma Morales. She was one of five daughters of a Spanish family settled in the Montserrat neighborhood. She happily reported that she was unruly as a girl. Her father celebrated her cleverness. She had a happy childhood: with birthdays and the three wise men.

He attended the sixth grade – then his last year – at the Coronel Suárez School. Later, he went to secondary school. At a very young age he met Carlos Cortinas, who was six years older than him. The crush was intense. When she was 18 he asked for her hand. A year later they married. In 1952, the family’s first child, Carlos Gustavo, was born. Then, in 1955, Marcelo arrived.

Carlos worked in the Ministry of Economy. He was a Peronist and greatly admired Eva Perón. Nora was far from partisan issues. The center of her life was the family home in Castellar. She taught textile classes and sometimes sewed outside. Carlos did not like his wife working outside the home. It was too manly, he said.

He called his eldest son by his middle name, Gustavo.. He was studying at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) – after a period at the University of Morón. He was a member of the Peronist Youth (JP). In the early days he did so in Villa 31 with Father Carlos Múgica. On May 11, 1974 Gustavo turned 22. That day he was sad and did not want to celebrate: the Triple A had shot the priest.

Those were violent times. Death could wait, as it did with Mugica outside the church. Or around the corner. Nora became distressed and asked Gustavo not to expose himself.

“What do you want, mother, other mothers’ children to go to?”

That day he understood that he had to go to the front forever. And he completed the education of his elder son.

a new life

Nora says goodbye to Gustavo at the Mar del Tuy bus station. The whole family spent Easter 1977 at the spa. Nora and her husband stayed a few more days. Gustavo – who by then was already married to Ana and had a two-year-old son, Damian – returned first. Nora couldn’t even imagine that this was going to be her last embrace.

On April 15, 1977, Gustavo left for work. He did not arrive. He did not even meet Ana, as they had agreed. Over time, it turned out that she was taken from Castellar station.

Ana was waiting for him at Nora and Carlos’ house. I was desperate. From the window I saw Ford Falcons passing by. Plants that moved. The dense silence was broken when the doorbell rang. She looked outside and they told her that they had come to tell her that Gustavo had an accident. A few seconds later, the gang was already inside. Pokes, questions, weapons. And when the girl answered the interrogation, one of the repressors mumbled “agreed”.

Ana breaks the news to Nora that Gustavo has been taken. The mother did not hesitate and went in search of him. The first arrangement was made at the Cathedral of Moron. The second was at the local police station. An employee asked her for her address and she said there was a vacancy there.

With her husband, she contacted human rights organizations that were already working, such as the Argentine League for Human Rights (LADH), the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH), and the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights (MEDH).

A brother-in-law told her about some women who were gathering in front of the Government House. She went there. He arrived at the Plaza de Mayo for the first time in May 1977.. She never abandoned him – not even despite the terror caused by the kidnapping of Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and María Eugenia Ponce de Bianco in December of that year.

In the Plaza de Mayo, they were “crazy” for the dictatorship. crazy women who walked, cried, stood firm even when the sky fell. “The public that passed through the Plaza de Mayo did not see us for many years,” she said years ago in an interview with the National Library. We were invisible. No one came to ask what we were doing there.”

What is fear?

Nora hid it because she was afraid. He entered the secret center Mansión Seré, which the dictatorship operated in Castellar, hoping to hear a scream that would let him know if Carlos Gustavo was being held there.,

Christmas 1978 was spent in Dolores: I went with two other mothers to ask Judge Carlos Faccio to let them identify some bodies that had appeared on the beach a few days ago. They wanted to know if they were their children or the children of other mothers. Nora did what the judiciary did not: she traveled to Santa Teresita to find out how the search was going.

In the midst of state terrorism, the entire Ministry of Economy knew that Nora was looking for Gustavo day and night. One of her husband’s bosses taunted her: “Why don’t you tie him to the leg of the bed so he doesn’t go out into the street?”

When Christmas came, Nora had one hope: that her son would return to her. “I don’t know why on Christmas,” he said God’s forgiveness is not weakbook by Juan Gelman and Mara La Madrid -, but not because I expected any sign of humanity from the military. It was a way to instill hope. I think hope existed in all families, a mother knitting a sweater, or buying jeans that her son liked, putting another place setting on the table. So many things”.

He kept walking and walking, but he never managed to find out what Gustavo’s fate was. He always understood that the Plaza de Mayo was the place to demand explanations from the political power. That they open all the files of repression was one of his demands. With the advent of democracy, Nora She became one of the leaders of the founding line of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,

In 2012, when he had already been wanted for 35 years, he again filed a habeas corpus — as he signed a letter in May 1977, written by a friend of his son who had recently graduated as a lawyer. He went to the hearing and the judge asked him why he did it. The response was stinging. “Because before I die I want to know what happened to Gustavo.”

The mother of all fights

Nora belongs to everyone, to everyone. She was there where there was a claim. She understood very quickly that the fight for human rights is dynamic, that it does not end with demanding truth and justice for the crimes of the dictatorship. She joined the women’s assembly. She wore a green scarf to protest abortion. She approached diversities. I was there to denounce dismissals or repressions. She became very close to Sergio Maldonado when her brother Santiago disappeared. At the Posadas hospital, she felt like their fairy godmother in defense of public health.

For March 24, he called for unity of those who took to the streets to demand truth and justice at a time of denialist governments such as those of Javier Miley and Victoria Villarruel. On May 9, he announced that he would not go to the Plaza de Mayo to join the general strike of labor unions. His last meeting there was a week earlier.

. He was at the book fair to pay tribute to journalist Maria Seoane.

On May 17, she underwent hernia surgery at Moron Hospital and remained in intensive care. Her health became complicated. The body that had kept her going for so many years betrayed her.

Nora’s family announced her death in a statement Thursday at 6:41 p.m. “Deeply concerned by the serious situation our country is going through at this time and always willing to be present wherever there was injustice, Norita fought until the last moment to build a more just society. We are proud to share her life, her mark and her teachings that will leave an indelible mark on her family and society.”

A few minutes after her death was announced, a sign appeared on the fence protecting the Mayo Pyramid. “Eternal Nora,” it said. This Friday, from 9am to 6pm, a funeral will be held at the House of Memory and Life – Quinta Serra Estate, Santa Maria de Oro and Blas Pareira, Castellar. The same place where Nora went in the midst of destruction hoping to snatch her son from the jaws of death.

there is A Norita way of life: one who endows a person with noble and altruistic actions. Some time ago, Mabel Bellucci – one of those responsible for bringing him closer to feminism – said LatFem He The insurgency regarded Norita as a “saint”, invoking her at the march even when she was not there. It will be hard not to do this from now on. Although it is known: where there is a fight, there is a Norita.