On the occasion of the “Day of Affirmation of Argentine Rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgias and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas”, the Secretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Filmus, the Secretary of Sports, Inés Arrondo, the Secretary of Cultural Management of the Ministry of Culture, Maximiliano Uceda, together with the Director of the Malvinas Museum, Edgardo Esteban, and the Secretary of the Federation of Sports Organizations of Argentina, which brings together neighborhood and town clubs from all over the country, Leonardo Militello, launched the federal mural contest "My club and Malvinas", under the auspices of the Argentine Federation of Municipalities.
This project, which was presented at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship on June 10th, has the ambitious objective of putting under competition 188 murals made by the clubs, one for each year of the British usurpation on the islands.
“On the courts and in the clubs, the Malvinas Cause is lived with emotion. Ten thousand neighborhood and town clubs throughout our country contribute to the formation of thousands of boys, girls, adolescents and young people. Precisely, the purpose of this project is to be able to direct their training towards the notion of Argentine sovereignty rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgias and the South Sandwich Islands, the surrounding maritime areas and the huge amount of natural resources that they contain and that belong to all the Argentines”, highlighted Filmus during the launch event of the contest.
"188 years after the British usurpation of the Malvinas Islands, the only way we have to be sure that we are going to recover them is for one generation to transmit to the next the consciousness of national sovereignty over the archipelago," said the Secretary. He also recalled that "on June 9th, 1948, President Perón created the Antarctica and Malvinas Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship and thus established in that Ministry, the first government structure to uphold our sovereignty over those territories.”
Arrondo said that “the clubs are main actors in the construction of a sense of belonging and a collective project. Sovereignty, so important to our country, is built from every corner of the country. What better than the notion of sovereignty to be built from each club”.
For his part, Esteban, in his dual capacity as Director of the Malvinas Museum and as a former combatant who defended our sovereignty in the Islands, assured that it is “very important to be able to accompany this initiative to create murals in clubs, taking into account the transversal identity of the Malvinas Cause and thinking about the 40th anniversary of the war that will be celebrated next year. I believe that this campaign is the beginning of a greater action in which other sports can be added to the construction of memory and the love that we have for the Malvinas Cause ”.
Militello expressed that “the neighborhood and town clubs are formers of values of solidarity, identity and sovereignty in every corner of the country. Malvinas is in the heart of the Argentine people and at this very difficult time, the Malvinas murals will be the stimulus to regain social ties in each community ”.
The initiative proposes to reaffirm and disseminate among children, adolescents and young people throughout the country the sovereign rights of our country over the Malvinas, South Georgia s and South Sandwich Islands, the surrounding maritime areas and the large natural wealth they contain.
This contest for the creation and restoration of murals also tends to promote a sovereign and positive view of the Malvinas Islands and raise awareness about the bi-continental nature of our national territory.
A FODA team will be in charge of a shortlist of 40 murals, out of the total submitted to the contest, and the jury, made up of Pedro Saborido, Daniel Santoro, Miguel Repisio, Anabel Rodríguez, Daniel Filmus, Luisa di Tomaso, Giani Buono, Claudio Morresi, Juan Laborato and Nora Horchbaun, will select the five winners.
The contest was launched within the framework of the commemorative activities of June 10th, 1829, date on which, with the signature of the Governor of Buenos Aires, Martín Rodríguez, the Political and Military Command of the Malvinas Islands and those adjacent to the Cabo de Hornos was established and Luis Vernet was appointed for that position.
