Two days after 50 years of the coup, we remember one of the teachers of memory who taught La Plata to transform pain into justice: Herenia Sánchez Viamonte.
Within the framework of the special Women from La Plata for Women’s Monthand just two days after commemorating the 50 years of the beginning of the bloodiest dictatorship in our history, the figure of Herenia Julia Martínez Cámara de Sánchez Viamonte emerges as a beacon of dignity. An illustrious neighbor of La Plata, Herenia is much more than a name on a human rights list: it is the embodiment of a city that does not forget.
Herenia was a passionate teacher, a history teacher and became director of the Fine Arts Baccalaureate. However, his life took a tragic turn in October 1977, when his son Santiago Sánchez Viamonte—a rugby player for La Plata Rugby Club and an Architecture student—was kidnapped and disappeared along with his wife, Cecilia Eguía, in the city of Mar del Plata.
One of the founders of local memory
Far from locking herself in silence, Herenia joined other mothers who, like her, were looking for answers in the hallways of a militarized city. She was one of the founders of the La Plata branch of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. With her teacher’s overalls and white scarf, Herenia walked the streets of La Plata demanding a truth that power was trying to hide.
His legacy is deeply linked to education and local sports. His son Santiago is one of the symbols of the «missing rugby players», a story that Herenia was in charge of keeping alive so that the city’s clubs were also spaces of memory. For her, remembering is not an act of the past, but a tool for new generations to understand the value of life and democracy.
Half a century of tireless search
Fifty years after March 24, 1976, Herenia’s presence in every march and every school event continues to be a living testimony. Despite the passage of time, his voice has not lost firmness. She continues to be the teacher who, with patience and tenderness, explains that identity and justice are the only possible paths to a healthy society.
Today we honor the woman who taught history in the classrooms and ended up writing the great history of our city. Herenia Sánchez Viamonte is one of the people who are living proof: In the face of horror, La Plata’s response was, is and will always be the tireless search for the truth.
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