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Childhood, Love and Politics: The Montonero ‘Nursery’ in Cuba during the Cold War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2022

Isabella Cosse
Isabella Cosse*
Affiliation:
CONICET / Universidad Nacional de San Martín
*
*Corresponding author. Email: isabella.cosse@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article examines the conditions that led the Argentine armed group Montoneros to establish a nursery in Cuba, in 1979, to care for the children of exiled members who had decided to return to the country to fight against a dictatorial regime characterised by the crime of enforced disappearance and supported by continental and global alliances. The analysis focuses on the dilemmas children posed for militants and the organisation and how those concerns were in part addressed by setting up a facility to care for the children. The article then considers how that childcare effort by the Montoneros connected with Cuba's internationalist and refugee policies and with continental struggles, as well as looking at how the children involved experienced it. This reconstruction offers a new approach to thinking about political conflicts in the heated Cold War scenario in Latin America, through the lens of children's history and by exploring how love and politics are intertwined.

Niñez, amor y política: la ‘guardería’ montonera en cuba durante la guerra fría: spanish abstract

Niñez, amor y política: La ‘guardería’ montonera en Cuba durante la Guerra Fría: Spanish abstract

Este artículo examina las condiciones que llevaron a que el grupo armado argentino Montoneros estableciera una guardería en Cuba, en 1979, con el fin de cuidar a los hijos de militantes exiliados que habían decidido retornar a su país para combatir un régimen dictatorial caracterizado por el crimen de desaparición forzada y apoyado por alianzas continentales y globales. El análisis se centra en los dilemas que los niños abrieron para los militantes y la organización y cómo estas preocupaciones fueron en parte resueltas al establecerse un espacio para el cuidado de los menores. El artículo luego considera cómo este esfuerzo de cuidado infantil de parte de Montoneros se relacionó con las políticas internacionalistas y de refugio de Cuba y con las luchas continentales, a la vez que examina cómo lo vivieron los niños. Tal reconstrucción ofrece un nuevo enfoque para pensar los conflictos políticos en la coyuntura caliente de la Guerra Fría en América Latina a través del lente de la historia de los niños, a la vez que explora el entrelazamiento del amor y la política.

Infância, amor e política: o ‘berçário’ montonero em cuba durante a guerra fria: portuguese abstract

Infância, amor e política: O ‘berçário’ montonero em Cuba durante a Guerra Fria: Portuguese abstract

Este artigo examina as condições que levaram o grupo armado argentino Montoneros a estabelecer uma creche em Cuba, em 1979, para cuidar dos filhos de exilados que decidiram retornar à Argentina para lutar contra um regime ditatorial caracterizado pelo crime de desaparecimento e apoiado por alianças continentais e globais. A análise se concentra nos dilemas que as crianças representaram para os militantes e a organização e como essas preocupações foram em parte abordadas pela criação de uma instalação para cuidar das crianças. O artigo então considera como esse esforço de cuidado infantil dos Montoneros conectou-se com as políticas internacionalistas e de refugiados de Cuba e com lutas continentais, além de observar como as crianças envolvidas o vivenciaram. Essa reconstrução oferece uma nova abordagem para pensar os conflitos políticos no cenário acalorado da Guerra Fria na América Latina, através das lentes da história das crianças e explorando como o amor e a política estão entrelaçados.

Keywords

Cold WarchildhooddictatorshipArgentinaCubaLatin AmericaGuerra FríaniñezdictaduraArgentinaCubaLatinoaméricaGuerra FriainfânciaditaduraArgentinaCubaAmérica Latina
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 1 - 26
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Translated by Laura Pérez Carrara

References

1 Reconstruction based on Argento, Analía, La Guardería Montonera: La vida en Cuba de los hijos de la Contraofensiva (Buenos Aires: Marea Editorial, 2013), pp. 72–4Google Scholar; interviews featured in the 2016 documentary La Guardería, directed by Virginia Croatto; and court records of the trial ‘Juicio sobre la Contraofensiva’, San Martín Oral Court No. 4, Buenos Aires Province (2019–21) (hereinafter ‘Counteroffensive Trial’).

2 Testimony, Susana Brardinelli de Croatto, Counteroffensive Trial (26 July 2019) and email communication with Virginia Croatto, Buenos Aires (10 March 2020).

3 ‘Deux responsables péronistes Montoneros quittent l'organisation’, Le Monde, 25 Feb. 1979, News Clippings Book, Arg. ha. 1976, Ibero-American Institute, Berlin; Richard Gillespie, Soldados de Perón: Los Montoneros (Buenos Aires: Grijalbo, 1987), pp. 305–27; and Hernán Confino, ‘La Contraofensiva Estratégica de Montoneros: Entre el exilio y la militancia revolucionaria (1976–1980)’, unpubl. PhD diss., Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, 2018, pp. 113, 155 and 169.

4 ‘La conducción no tomó todos los recaudos’, Página 12, 15 Aug. 2003, available at www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-24157-2003-08-15.html, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

5 The film is Croatto's Guardería. The first book on the subject is Cristina Zuker's El tren de la victoria: La saga de los Zuker (Buenos Aires: Del Nuevo Extremo, 2010); the second is Argento's Guardería Montonera. Although he does not mention the nursery, in his 2012 film Infancia Clandestina, Benjamín Ávila tells the story of the counteroffensive from the children's point of view.

6 The trial ended with the conviction of six high-ranking members of the armed forces on numerous counts of murder, torture and unlawful imprisonment of guerrillas who had participated in the counteroffensive. The officers were also found guilty of being part of an apparatus that planned and ordered those crimes, and they were sentenced to life in prison. In her closing arguments, federal prosecutor Gabriela Sosti vindicated the actions of the Montoneros, alleging that they were exercising their right to rebel against the military dictatorship. ‘Juicio contraofensiva – día 78 – palabras finales y veredicto’, available at https://laretaguardia.com.ar/2021/06/veredicto-contraofensiva.html, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

7 Confino, ‘Contraofensiva Estratégica’.

8 Basile, Teresa, ‘Infancia educada: El niño nuevo’, Babedec, 7: 13 (2017), pp. 155–79Google Scholar; Javier Trímboli, ‘La guardería: Entre la revolución y el refugio’, in Jordana Blejmar, Silvana Mandolessi and Mariana Eva Pérez (eds.), El Pasado inasequible: Desaparecidos, hijos y combatientes en el arte y la literatura del nuevo milenio (Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2017), pp. 281–91. On memory and family ties, see Ana Amado and Nora Domínguez (eds.), Lazos de familia: Herencias, cuerpos, ficciones (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2004).

9 I draw here on Ahmed, Sara, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004)Google Scholar. On the political aspect, see Stoler, Ann Laura, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

10 Anna Peterson and Kay Read, ‘Victims, Heroes, Enemies: Children in Central American Wars’, in Tobias Hecht (ed.), Minor Omissions: Children in Latin American History and Society (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2002), pp. 215–32; and Ilene Cohn and Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). On children who, during Argentina's dictatorship, lived with families uninvolved in political activism, see Llobet, Valeria, ‘“¿Y vos qué sabés si no lo viviste?” Infancia y dictadura en un pueblo de provincia’, Contracorriente, 12: 3 (2015), pp. 1–41Google Scholar. On the abduction of children, see Carla Villalta, Entregas y secuestros: El rol del Estado en la apropiación de niños (Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Puerto, 2012); and Sabrina Regueiro, Apropiación de niños, familias y justicia en Argentina (Rosario: Prohistoria, 2012).

11 About this issue, see Maza, Sarah, ‘The Kids Aren't All Right: Historians and the Problem of Childhood’, American Historical Review, 125: 4 (2020), pp. 1261–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and AHR Exchanges, with comments by Steven Mintz, Bengt Sandin and Nara Milanich, among others.

12 More information in http://memoriaabierta.org.ar/wp/sobre-testimonios/, last access 5 Oct. 2022, and the Counteroffensive Trial court records.

13 Ginzburg, Carlo, Mitos, emblemas, indicios: Morfología e historia (Barcelona: Gedisa, 1999), pp. 138–40Google Scholar.

14 Gillespie, Soldados de Perón, pp. 119–203.

15 See Marina Franco, Un enemigo para la nación: Orden interno, violencia y ‘subversión’ (1973–1976) (Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012).

16 Emilio Crenzel, Memory of the Argentina Disappearances: The Political History of Nunca Más (New York and London: Routledge, 2012).

17 ‘¿Qué pasó, en el Barrio de Kolynos?’, Noticias, 19 Nov. 1973, p. 1; ‘Hablan los padres de la nena desaparecida’, Noticias, 6 Dec. 1973, cover; ‘Niño baleado en la cabeza’, Noticias, 9 Dec. 1975, p. 5.

18 María Seoane, Todo o nada: La historia secreta y la historia pública del jefe guerrillero Mario Roberto Santucho (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1991), p. 295.

19 Author's interview with Juan Carlos Volnovich, Buenos Aires, 15 Nov. 2019. The same account is featured in Argento, Guardería Montonera, p. 24.

20 Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, La historia de Abuelas, 30 años de búsqueda (Buenos Aires: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, 2007); Fabricio A. Laino Sanchis, De ‘niños desaparecidos’ a ‘nietos restituidos’: Actores, escenarios y restitución de los/as niño/as apropiados/as durante la última dictadura en Argentina (1976–2004) (Buenos Aires: Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, 2020).

21 The figure of 500 stolen babies was calculated by Argentina's human-rights organisations, based on information gathered and processed by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. For a list of those who were found as a result of this organisation's efforts, see www.abuelas.org.ar/caso, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

22 Didier Fassin, Por una repolitización del mundo: Las vidas descartables como desafío del siglo XXI (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2018), pp. 122–7.

23 On the sacralisation of children, see Viviana Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985). For Argentina, see Isabella Cosse, Estigmas de nacimiento: Peronismo y orden familiar (Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2006).

24 This was not the only difference between them. See Isabella Cosse, ‘“Pibes” en el centro de la escena: Infancia, sensibilidades y lucha política en la Argentina de los setenta’, in Silvia María F. Arend, Esmeralda Blanco B. de Moura and Susana Sosenski (eds.), Infâncias e juventudes no século XX: Histórias latino-americanas (Ponta Grossa: Todopalavra Editora, 2018), pp. 232–57.

25 Basile, ‘Infancia educada’; and Trímboli, ‘La guardería’. The role of couples in the counteroffensive is briefly mentioned in Confino, Contraofensiva Estratégica, but without a specific significance.

26 Hugo Vezzetti, Sobre la violencia revolucionaria: Memorias y olvidos (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2009).

27 On left-wing militant couple relationships and sex lives, see Cosse, Isabella, ‘Infidelities: Morality, Revolution, and Sexuality in Left-Wing Guerrilla Organizations in 1970s Argentina’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 23: 3 (2014), pp. 415–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oberti, Alejandra, ‘La moral según los revolucionarios’, Política de la Memoria, 5 (Summer 2004), pp. 77–84Google Scholar; and Mariela Peller, ‘Vida cotidiana, familia y revolución: La militancia en el PRT–ERP en la Argentina de los años sesenta y setenta’, unpubl. PhD diss., Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2013.

28 Ahmed, Cultural Politics, pp. 122–43. See, also, Francesco Alberoni, Innamoramento e amore (Milan: Garzanti, 1979).

29 ‘Crónicas del juicio − día 25 − Zapatos, cartas y unos pocos recuerdos’, El Diario del Juicio, available at https://juiciocontraofensiva.blogspot.com/2019/11/dia-25-zapatos-cartas-y-unos-pocos-recuerdos.html?m=0, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

30 Mario Benedetti, Inventario (Buenos Aires: Editorial Nueva Imagen, 1984 [1963]), pp. 230–1.

31 Analía Argento, De vuelta a casa: Historias de nietos restituidos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Marea, 2008), p. 32.

32 In addition to works already cited, see Isabella Cosse, Pareja, sexualidad y familia en los años sesenta (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2010), pp. 213–47.

33 See Cosse, ‘Infidelities’.

34 Confino, Contraofensiva Estratégica, pp. 121–49 and footnote 309 on p. 128.

35 El edificio de los chilenos, documentary directed by Macarena Aguiló (2010).

36 See Zuker, El tren de la victoria, especially pp. 163–7.

37 Daniel Viglietti, Canciones chuecas (Buenos Aires: Orfeo, 1971).

38 Testimony, Edgardo Binstock, Counteroffensive Trial.

39 On the experience of motherhood for militants, see Alejandra Oberti, Las revolucionarias: Militancia, vida cotidiana y afectividad en los setenta (Buenos Aires: Edhasa, 2015).

40 Pfluger interview in Croatto, Guardería.

41 Chelsea Cain (ed.), Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture (Toronto: Seal Press, 1999).

42 Judith Filc, Entre el parentesco y la política: Familia y dictadura, 1976–1983 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos, 1997). Also, Franco, Un enemigo para la nación.

43 Author's interview with Mariana Chaves, Buenos Aires, 10 Dec. 2019.

44 Seyla Benhabib, Los derechos de los otros: Extranjeros, residentes y ciudadanos (Barcelona: Gedisa, 2004), pp. 16–23. On Operation Condor, see Francesca Lessa, ‘Justice without Borders’, Policy Brief, available at www.lac.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/lac/documents/media/policy_brief_eng.pdf, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

45 Confino, Contraofensiva Estratégica, pp. 67–8.

46 Tanya Harmer, Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

47 On the importance of childhood for the Cuban Revolution, see Anita Casavantes Bradford, The Revolution is for the Children (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).

48 Chaves interview.

49 Cuba had since resumed diplomatic relations with Chile, Peru, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia, in addition to Argentina. Kruijt, Dirk, ‘Cuba y sus lazos con América Latina y el Caribe, 1959–presente’, Revista Uruguaya de Ciencias Políticas, 28: 1 (2009), pp. 279–97Google Scholar,

50 Gillespie, Soldados de Perón, pp. 306–7; Argento, Guardería Montonera, p. 32. This is also corroborated by accounts gathered in the author's interviews.

51 Martha C. Nussbaum, Emociones políticas: ¿Por qué el amor es importante para la justicia? (Barcelona: Paidós, 2014), p. 15.

52 María O'Donnell, Born: Montoneros (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 2015).

53 Author's interview with Estela Cereseto, Buenos Aires, 26 Aug. 2019.

54 Author's interview with Jesús Cruz, Buenos Aires, 5 Nov. 2019.

55 Argento, Guardería Montonera, pp. 134–6.

56 Author's interview with Susana Brardinelli, Buenos Aires, 14 Oct. 2019; and Cruz interview.

57 Chaves interview.

58 Brardinelli interview.

59 Author's interview with Virginia Croatto, Buenos Aires, 26 June 2019.

60 Ibid.

61 Argento, Guardería Montonera, p. 73; and Cruz interview.

62 Cruz interview.

63 Pfluger interview in Croatto, Guardería.

64 Author's interview with Edgardo Binstock, Buenos Aires, 5 Dec. 2019.

65 Pfluger interview in Croatto, Guardería.

66 Cosse, ‘“Pibes”’.

67 Based on the author's interviews; Counteroffensive Trial testimonies; and Roberto Baschetti, ‘Militantes del peronismo revolucionario’, available at www.robertobaschetti.com/biografia/d/154.html, last access 5 Oct. 2022.

68 Hugo Fucek, interviewed in Croatto, Guardería.

69 Brardinelli interview.

70 Cereseto interview.

71 ‘Los hijos de los pobres’, Noticias, 11 March 1974, p. 4.

72 Croatto interview.

73 Ibid.

74 Argento, Guardería Montonera, p. 12.

75 Brardinelli interview.

76 Chaves interview.

77 Croatto and Volnovich interviews; and Argento, Guardería Montonera.

78 Chaves and Croatto interviews.

79 For example, Raverta interview in Croatto, Guardería.

80 Interviews featured in Croatto, Guardería.

81 Raverta interview in Croatto, Guardería.

82 Brardinelli interview. Many families and even militant mothers, however, did not speak about the death and disappearance of a relative, even if it was the child's father. See Alejandra Oberti, ‘La salud de los enfermos o los (im)posibles diálogos entre generaciones sobre el pasado reciente’, in Amado and Domínguez, Lazos de familia, pp. 124–50.

83 Fucek interview in Croatto, Guardería.