Starting at 19.30 This Tuesday, May 7, the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will inaugurate, together with special guests, the Bicentennial Women’s Hall at the headquarters of the Patria Institute, located on Rodríguez Peña 80, in the heart of the City of Buenos Aires. The event will be broadcast live through the former president’s social networks.
The act will be consolidated as a response to the sexist politics of President Javier Mileiwho on March 8, on the International Day of Working Women, removed from the Casa Rosada the paintings that paid tribute to numerous female figures in Argentine historyand changed the name of the Women’s Hall—which CFK had inaugurated in 2009—to Hall of Heroes.
In this way, with its reopening at the Instituto Patria, Cristina Fernández will once again vindicate the contribution made by different female personalities to politics, culture, the economy, and the science of the country, among other areas. The place where they will be exhibited is known for being a space for training, training, debate and research on different topics to move from “reflection and construction of thought” to “action”, according to what is reported on its official website. .
In the hall they will be honored Eva Duarte de Perón, Alicia Moreau de Justo, Victoria Ocampo, Juana Azurduy, Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson, Alfonsina Storni, Lola Mora, Mercedes Sosa, Tita Merello, Aime Paine, Blackie, Cecilia Grierson, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and Mothers of Malvinas.
Fifteen years ago, the inauguration of the Argentine Women of the Bicentennial Hall in the Casa Rosada represented an imposing policy: until then, that area had no name and was known as “Status Room“. It was used for meetings, even of the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. For this reason, the former president decided to rename it and have it used for events and announcements.
Meanwhile, during Mauricio Macri’s administration, the purpose of the Hall was destroyed as such, and it became an office room with low partitions, electrical installations for computers and television screens, as well as a photocopier and a large central desk. . The paintings with the images of great women in Argentine history had not been removed, but they had never been used again for presidential events, until, during the government of Alberto Fernández, their original purpose was restored.
Meanwhile, in the middle of 8M, the Milei government decided to change the name of the room, and in an act of misogynistic revenge, replaced the women’s paintings with those of Jose de San Martin, Manuel Belgrano, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Julio Argentino Roca, and Carlos Saul Menem, among others. They did not include any women.
According to the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, that there was “a women’s salon” was considered “even discriminatory for men“In addition, at that time, he reported that the paintings that were exhibited of women were going to “the museum” of La Rosada. The decision to change the name was made by the general secretary of the Presidency, Karina Mileicalled “The Boss” by his brother.
