Until the last moment it was not known if Adolfo Pérez Esquivel I was going to be able to attend the presentation of to be humanfrom the writer and psychologist Pablo Melicchio. The 92-year-old Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner was monitoring the health of one of his children, who had been urgently hospitalized. Finally he was placed in the center of the table that also included the author of the book and the journalist. Osvaldo Quirogacoordinated by Constance Brunetdirector of Marea Editorial.
The editor introduced each of them, and the packed auditorium burst into applause when she named Perez Esquivel: “He always defended democracy through non-violent means against dictatorships. His activism continues to inspire us to fight against human rights violations on the continent. He considers that this book is a synthesis of his thoughts for the new generations.
to be humanwhich has the subtitle “The legacy of Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, instrument of peace”, is the result of several meetings between Melicchio and Perez Esquivel in his house and atelier. “In books it is possible to find literary medicine for a world in crisis,” says the author. In the conversations that gave rise to this book, the Nobel Peace Prize winner reflects on “the tyranny of the media, savage capitalism, exacerbated anxiety and, especially, the search for peace and non-violence. Because humanity has to recover hope, but an active hope, based on spirituality, beyond religions, uniting energies to be more and more human,” summarizes the back cover of to be human.
Although Perez Esquivel He left shortly after the talk began, when he was informed that his son had to undergo surgery. Before leaving, he dedicated a few minutes to share some concepts in a synthetic and forceful way. “We can talk about many things, but I’m going to ask you a question, which I think is fundamental: do you know each other?” “And how are we going to change the world if we don’t know each other?” He replied to the negative response of the majority. “How are we going to achieve peace if we are strangers? “How are we going to move forward in this Argentina that is so loved and so punished if we don’t know each other,” he reinforced.
Then he invited the audience to each introduce themselves to the person next to them, asking them their name: “It is an exercise that I do with my students at the faculty, on the first day of classes. Do you know who you have next to you? I invite you to greet each other, say your names, which is very important, and then we will continue.” Perez Esquivel He allowed a couple of minutes in which those present stopped directing their attention towards the stage to greet and chat with the people sitting next to them.
“We are going to finish this exercise,” he interrupted, to announce that he had to leave, “but here are your friends, with you.” “You know? This little exercise of saying their names is very important, don’t forget this, to know who you have next to you. He is a man, a woman, with different social, political, and religious positions. “Each one of us is different, but we all have the same rights,” he emphasized. Perez Esquivel. “That is why we have to build a better society, for everyone. And don’t forget this: everything we do, if it is not with the force of love, has no meaning. We get involved in political and economic situations, we fight, but the strength of loving is what gives meaning to this thing of being human, of recognizing ourselves. We are different, but we all have the same rights.”
“I leave you a fraternal hug of peace and good, and I wish you a lot of strength and hope. And please, don’t forget to smile at life. The day they stop smiling at life, they are defeated beings. Life has many lights and shadows, but, as the proverb says, the darkest night is when it begins to dawn,” he said goodbye. Perez Esquivelapologizing for having to withdraw.
They were left on the table Pablo Melicchio and Osvaldo Quiroga. The journalist, who has been able to talk repeatedly with the Argentine Nobel Prize winner, assured that “Perez Esquivel is in full body in the book” and asked the author how the idea of writing it had arisen.
“The idea of to be human It resonated with me from when I met Adolfo at SERPAJ [Servicio de Paz y Justicia] to ask him to preface my book The Norita side of life. And he told me: ‘I’m not going to write a prologue, I’m going to write an open letter.’ I’m reading a lot of Buddhism lately, and I feel he is a teacher, as if I had been his disciple, not a psychoanalyst, nor a journalist, nor a writer. Adolfo received me at his house every Friday for a semester, and he asked me many questions. It ends up being a book where, although there is psychoanalysis listening, listening is an act of love, of dedication, as is the act of interviewing. And here what happened is that I began to listen to Adolfo from a place possibly of my ideological concerns, or from psychoanalysis, but it ended up being a game where we walked the word together, as Adolfo likes to say, and a book was built that It far exceeds what I originally thought,” he concluded. Melicchio.
