Amid the success of the El Eternalauta series, the last name Oesterheld has gained enormous relevance. The story of the creator of the comic on which Netflix’s Argentine megap production is based on the world acquired a deep relevance: from his career as an author to his deep political militancy until his disappearance and that of his daughters in full military civic dictatorship.
For Alicia Beltrami, journalist, writer and author of The oesterheld, The biography that runs through his life, is a family that has always communicated through the word. “They gave a lot of value to writing, to the word, they had an epistolary communication daily,” he said in an interview with the 750.
Beltrami Junto a Fernanda Nicolini He published the book in 2016, for which they did an extensive research work and 60 interviews with friends, companions of militancy, survivors, colleagues, family and especially their widow, Elsa Sánches of Oesterheldto rebuild the profile of Héctor and his four daughters –Estela, Diana, Beatriz and Marina-, all Montoneros and missing militants between 1976 and 1977.
According to Beltrami, in 2016 “it was a conducive moment” to publish the book. “It was another time climate, we could collect a lot of testimonies. It arose from an editorial proposal, but also in that time climate of the Kirchner government there was a need to count on that time, ”he said.
“In addition to the tragedy, it seemed to us that through its history, tell many others. It is the reconstruction of the life of the Oesterheld family and we focused on the militancy. Between 76 and 77 10 members of that family disappeared, ”he said.
The journalist recalled that the material used for publication was for various interviews with Elsa Oesterheld And that, thanks to the surviving grandchildren, they had access to the family archive to rebuild history.
Beltrami highlighted Elsa’s figure as “resistance” and a woman with “much strength”. “She told us that she survived because she had to raise her surviving grandchildren but also said that perhaps it was something of the destination that put her in front of what she had to cope with and, on that way, she became that pain – until her death – in struggle. Grandmothers of Plaza de May”He said.
The collective struggle of Oesterheld
In the same vein, he pointed out that the collective fighting message of Héctor Oesterheld He was glimpsed from his works and his militancy, however, his “conversion” to Peronism was gradual.
“Oesterheld He had an artistic proposal to leave the country, but it was stronger that his daughters were here and two had already disappeared. It was very expensive for the militant to leave and feel that he left the rest alone. Many stayed here for that”He said.
“He reached Peronism. He changed with life. He was an intellectual, a humanist. Hector’s transformation towards this way of seeing the world was over timeIn fact, he performs a comic about the life of Che Guevara in 68, the first cartoon where he explicitly expresses himself politically, ”he added.
“Then, write a version of The Eternaluta in the 69 that goes out in the magazine Gente. That script is totally different than the 57 version, the first eternalauta, because That extraterrestrial invasion that we do not know where it comes from, in 69 it is an invasion that takes place in Latin America, because the first world powers negotiate with the invaders to give up our land. There is already a change in Hector’s ideological perception in that cartoon. It was a commercial failure because readers arrived criticizing that new content but more for the dark, hard drawing of Alberto Breccia, ”he closed.
