So I found the meme above on the Twitter, posted by some FeMRA I’ve never heard of but who for some reason has me blocked.
I’m stumped. A little reverse-image search shows that the pic is a still from a K-Pop video. Which … doesn’t really help me to make sense of this at all.
Any guesses?
@Bina
The nickname “El Brujo” was previous to the necromancy attempt, because it was known he had a thing for occultism (and far right policies).
Getting rid of the one who made up that name was one of the first things he did when he had his own army of extremists, however he could not get rid of the name itself (Ha – ha at you, Brujo!!)
As for Eva, she’s legendary in the deepest sense.
There’s a religious touch to being Peronist, heavily influenced and shaped by Catholicism, in which she is a popular saint in spite of the Church’s rejection of her (much like Saint George, patron saint of my family and of thieves -make of that what you wish).
This religious community grew out of control of the official Church and its very conservative authorities freak out about it. There’s a lot of people despising Peronism for being “too fanatic”, in a way similar to people claiming feminist words and actions are “too emotional” in order to dismiss them.
There is what I would call “healthy fanaticism”, also very present in the best feminist spaces, that goes beyond ideology and into sharing emotions with people who are able to value them and grow together.
We wear Evita’s face and name on our chests in every march, by thousands, we make songs about her being in our hearts, we chant she’s present now and forever (like the 30.000 peronist compañeros disappeared during the 70s).
So people like Borges see their very refined Buenos Aires center invaded by what a much less intelligent but similarly backward thinking guy described as “zoological flooding”.
So the “common sense” currently is to dismiss the whole thing entirely.
Also, at that time all actresses but a selected few were assumed to be or have been prostitutes, especially if they were poor and coming from the countryside (and considering we were just beginning to catch up to the industrial revolution, I’m betting that was a majority)
As for her lobotomy, that’s one of the stories I find most painful in a personal way, along with the fact that her cancer might have been caused by Peron carrying HPV and infecting her, as well as her previous wife who apparently died the same way.
There aren’t many documents on this, or on many of the stories and rumors, so I’m reluctant to affirm the stuff I haven’t checked for myself. But I do listen to everything and try to get as much facts as I can, and I also consider the fact that powerful men know how to destroy evidence.
Also, Alan, remember I told you about my lawyer friend? He also wrote the Wikipedia article for Evita in Spanish…
And also Bina, so sorry about the story of the translation, I can imagine how it affected you to process that.
As for Eduardo Galeano, we absolutely keep him in our hearts. In a way, he wrote about Latin America the same way Simone de Beauvoir wrote about women, in a systematic and thorough way. And with their hearts on it, as well.
The problem of Argentina was always Buenos Aires: long story short, the elites lived and ruled there, and controlled most of the countries resources.
Most of them identify with the American/European way of life and understanding of the wold, despite the fact that they are affected and brought down by that same racism they accept.
But there’s another story out there and it’s more alive than ever. We’re still fighting for survival at this point, but I trust the solution is for all Latin America to figure out (and possibly the Caribbean as well), we’re too weak when we’re broken into pieces.
Not that united we’re that powerful either, but at least we stand a better chance.
Also, one of the things to determine in these elections are Parliamentarians for the Mercosur Parliament being conformed.
So yes, a lot is at stake and I keep typing so I don’t bite my nails and fingers off.
http://blog.blackmilkclothing.com/.a/6a00d834a16dcf69e201bb08264077970d-500wi
Embed Mammoth!! I’ll type over you too!!!!
Considering that Voodoo/Vodou is an odd mixture of multiple African religions and French Catholicism with the spirits/loa acting in place of the saints… probably not voodoo.
Discussion of weird politics always reminds me of where I grew up, in British Columbia (Canada). One of the major people involved in the creation of the modern province and joining the rest of Confederation changed his name as a young man to something he felt more appropriate.
He called himself ‘Amor de Cosmos’.
B.C. politics has had a number of odd personalities ever since.
And to make it more depressing, let’s not forget two thousand years of “female hysteria” diagnoses and the humiliating and sometimes life-threatening “treatments” that followed.
@Bina: Sure, use it away!
And let’s not forget the sexual assault that went along with that.
Or just straight-up incarceration or murder whenever a woman’s existence became inconvenient to the men in her life.
@Jenora
Also, voodoo is more typical of nations closer to the Equator and the Caribbean, and the Haitian is know to be one of the darkest branches, as its related to a history of slavery and extreme poverty.
In South America, the mixtures took the shape of Umbanda, a similar concept mixed with certain native traditions from Brazil as well as from Africa and… well… slavery and extreme poverty :'(
Re: men diagnosing/operating/getting women out of the way
That’s sadly a long long story; I’ll go read Simone’s comments on it to cheer me up (sort of).
Oh, also, I meant to say Lopez Rega was probably more “inspired” by European occultism, since he despised popular culture as much as any anti-Peronist, any day.
I’m still trying to find out if there’s a German connection. The timing sort of works out and there’s a parallel in some of the political ideology that is consistent with some cross fertilisation.
@Alan
Re: Ahnenerbe
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of link, since Lopez Rega has been compared to Giulio Evola, italian esoteric fascist, also fascinated with the Nazis.
Wikipedia tells me he belonged to Propaganda Due, a far far faaaaar right masonic circle. as well as Peron himself (possible) and Massera (absolutely possible), one of the three self-appointed heads of state during the dictatorship following Peron’s death and Maria Estela’s fall.
It makes sense, since Videla/Massera/Agosti was the triple version of Hitler we had over here.
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Another funny thing about Lopez Rega, who became the icon of right wing Peronism during the 70s, is that he actually faced trial and died in jail while waiting for his sentence.
Well, that isn’t really funny, but bear with me.
Anti-Peronists love to bring the Triple A as some sort of “gotcha”, since Peronism coined the term “State Terrorism” to explain the methods used during the dictatorship.
So it would be like a “hey, you had State Terrorism too, debate’s over!”
But the thing is, even though he wasn’t judged for crimes against humanity, he was judged for regular crimes, like kidnapping and homicide. And died in jail.
Although some high profile dictators have indeed faced jail, including Videla himself, who also died in jail but already condemned for life, most of the military and police officers involved are free and yet uncharged, and many still keep the same job they had, or even were raised.
As I said, our enemy is way more powerful than we are. And I’m not even getting on the civil and religious accomplices, who mostly still get away from trial by virtue of their many judge friends, who were also actively involved in the dictatorship.
And the somewhat ironic thing is, Lopez Rega himself started using State Terrorism tactics while democracy was still in place, even when Peron was still alive. Which is unforgivable, from a Peronist point of view.
Then he was judged and put in jail during the dictatorship, who continued to use State Terrorism against the same left-wing Peronists which had been hunted down by the Triple A squad.
And still anti-Peronists hold Lopez Rega as a gotcha against letf wing Peronism.
Enough! Kitty gif party!!
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/459831/cat-im-a-kitty-cat-o.gif
http://data2.whicdn.com/images/128641274/original.gif
http://media1.giphy.com/media/rIQHCUPuYAogw/giphy.gif
http://image.blingee.com/images19/content/output/000/000/000/7cc/808041087_1238229.gif
WAIT HOLY FUCK WHAT WAS THAT
http://www.netanimations.net/TechnoTim.gif
Well terrorism is a tactic not an ideology. Over here Churchill’s instructions to the SOE was “to set Europe ablaze” by using “terrorism”.
The word has very negative connotations now of course, but would anybody flinch if a politician said something like “our new policy will put terror into the hearts of…(insert unpopular criminal type)”
On another point, is there some romanticism in Argentine politics for Republican Rome? I ask because the Triumvirate seems a popular choice of government there at times.
Also: like the kittehs, specially DJ Cat.
@Alan Robertshaw: No one flinches at the endless and numberless Wars On X that we’ve had since the 70s over here in Bonerland.
Kind of makes wars meaningless.
*the word “war” meaningless.
Well, the Triple A founding act stated something about “annihilation of the subversion forces”, but usually people were just accused of being “Marxist”, or just not accused at all and kidnapped/murdered.
As for the dictators, they too kept the focus on “Marxism”, and used the figure of “subversion”. Granted, the left wing Peronism was deploying an armed uprising, but still it had nothing to do with Marxism.
As for the Triumvirate, its existence was the result of a power struggle within the revolutionary movement which overthrew the Spanish ruling.
The most popular-leaning ideologists (Belgrano, San Martin, Moreno), also advocates for indigenous populations, wanted a government like the Primera Junta, which included a president, several vocals and two secretaries.
The most conservative-leaning independentists, who were only in it for their business, like Saavedra, Azcuénaga, were more comfortable with a single-person government. Most came from traditional aristocratic families, and were ok with not being a colony, but didn’t want a complete turn of events.
They were also the most powerful, and less worried about ethics, and cleaned the Primera Junta by misterious deaths of its members, or sending them to impossible missions, like Belgrano, or de-financing their independence campaigns, like San Martin.
Independence triumphed in the end, by sheer will of those really convinced by it, but the aristocrats were able to impose most of their conditions.
(It does resemble a few aspects of what happened withtin the Peronist movement 150 years later, and I am sure Peron was well aware of this history and tried to use it in his favor)
As for the Junta Militar, it was meant to include each head of the Army, Marine and Air Force.
They sort of divided the areas of government among themselves, and then each handled their part more or less independently from the other two. Sometimes they acted together, like in the horrible, horrible vuelos de la muerte or death flights. (Trigger warning on that link for lurkers and passers by, read only if you can stomach).
By the stories of survivors and tracing of disappeard ones, apparently each Force handled their own prisoners and didn’t transfer or exchanged them with the other two. (Exception again for the death flights).
They might have felt or even claimed they were honoring the tradition of those first governments, but I really doubt those were their true intentions.
Though it’s interest to see how it reflects on people fro the outside, so maybe there’s more in common than I can see from here. I’ll keep thinking about this.
Uggggghhhh link failllll!!!! Ok, here are the last paragraphs again:
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By the stories of survivors and tracing of disappeard ones, apparently each Force handled their own prisoners and didn’t transfer or exchanged them with the other two. (Exception again for the death flights).
They might have felt or even claimed they were honoring the tradition of those first governments, but I really doubt those were their true intentions.
Though it’s interest to see how it reflects on people fro the outside, so maybe there’s more in common than I can see from here. I’ll keep thinking about this.
Well like I say, I’m pretty ignorant of Latin American history save where it intersects with British history so I wouldn’t use me as any sort of example of informed observer.
There does seem to be a fetish for Roman ideals though with right wing governments. I’m sure you know the origin of the word fascist.
As for Marxism. I think we get back to the debate about who gets to define words. Wasn’t it Marx himself who said he didn’t know what the word meant but he knew he wasn’t a Marxist.
I did used to drink in his favourite pub though, so on that definition does that count as Marxism? 🙂
Well, you’re right about the word definition thing. Peron himself was accused of being a Communist and a Fascist / Nazi.
The thing is, there were Marxists at that time, int that place. They mostly escaped the radar, because they were seen as harmless because they weren’t even close to the numbers or organization level of the Peronists.
It’s not that they weren’t persecuted at all, by they weren’t the main target, by a long shot. Many Marxist / anarchist leaders had enough time to flee the country, which is something the peronists use to shame their followers even today. One of the most known of those leaders is running for President on these very elections (he clearly won’t make it, though).
Again, it’s not that no peronists left the country (and in fact many leaders fled leaving their followers at the non-mercy of the dictatorship), but they were the majority who stayed and fought.
There’s this tradition of calling the Peronist movement “Soldados the Peron”, which often was very literal: workers in 1945 usually were armed (and so were they police men used to repress them), and well, the case of the dictatorship brought up the same sentiment.
Also, many Mother and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, therefore mothers of the peronist resistance, were in fact from middle-to-upper classes, and often strongly anti-Peronist. It was through the fight to recover their sons and daughter that they came to learn about the underlying power struggle.
Today, most of them identify as Peronists and support the current government. The left parties consistently try to paint this as a treason or a capitulation, but the truth is there haven’t been more advances in human rights, the recovery of our memory, and the convictions for crimes against humanity as there were in the past 10 or 12 years.
PS: I would definitely call you a Certified Cultural Marxist for that! 😉