The exhibition THE WORLD CUP AT ESMA has been inaugurated alongside survivors, family-members, and a former soccer player from Argentina’s 1978 national team.

The exhibition THE WORLD CUP AT THE ESMA. Testimonies, Objects and Experiences, Living in the Clandestine Center During the 1978 World Cup was inaugurated on June 28, 2018 at the ESMA Museum and Site for Memory – Former Clandestine Center of Detention, Torture and Extermination, with survivors Ricardo Coquet and Alfredo “Mantecol” Ayala; Cristina Muro, wife of  ESMA detained-disappeared Carlos Alberto Chiappolini and Jorge Olguín, world champion with the 1978 Argentine Team.

The inauguration began with words by Museum Director Alejandra Naftal: «I just heard Coquet saying to Olguin: ‘I cheered you on from the basement’. And this exhibition is about that, about offering a first person account of the strange life people lived in this place during the World Cup.»

Coquet completed the story: «I remember that we saw the match between Argentina and Peru –which [Argentina] had to win by many goals– in the Basement. I was with a partner, another witness; I prefer that word because survivor sounds like more suffering to me. We won 6-0 and obviously we were very happy. But suddenly we heard that they slammed the doors, which is what happened when they brought a new kidnapped person. When we left, we went from that little World Cup euphoria to seeing a partner lying on the floor, dead. That brought us back to the reality of where we were.»

“It’s hard to speak after hearing these testimonies,” continued Olguín, “from those who cheered us on while suffering. I don’t know how to explain that for us, the soccer players, we didn’t have the slightest idea of what was happening. I am deeply sorry, from the bottom of my heart and I want to say thank you for inviting me to share this moment.”

«It took me a long time to understand that rights are something you fight for in the street, and that Argentina’s soccer games are something you should sit down, watch, and enjoy. This is not a dichotomy if you know what fights must be fought,» Cristina Muro contributed.

Finally, before starting the tour of the temporary exhibition, Mantecol said: «I never accused the National Team of being accomplices in that situation. But the World Cup was an excuse. During that time, videos were made here featuring an ideal country, a fantasy, for foreign journalists. What they did not know was that those jobs and those videos were made by detained, tortured people.»

Other participants of this event included Daniel Tarnopolsky, representative of the Board of Human Rights Organizations of the former ESMA; Néstor Fuentes, survivor of this clandestine center; and Claudio Morresi, former Secretary of Sports. We were also joined by Nora Hochbaum and Florencia Battiti from Parque de la Memoria (Memory Park) and Verónica Torras, director of Memoria Abierta, two institutions that co-organized this temporary exhibition was organized in parallel with the exhibition «Tiren papelitos» at the Park.