Field Lab in Argentina

Monday Barry took his Liberation Theology class to ISEDET, the Protestant seminary in Buenos Aires.   It was very disappointing.   Barry had become anxious about this in the last couple of weeks because his contacts there had become non-communicative.   This had been his experience on previous field labs as well, but everything had turned out well in Ghana and South Africa.  Ths time—not so much.

The plan was for Nestor Miguez, the son of Jose Miguez-Bonino with whom Barry had studied 30 years ago, to offer a seminar on his new book Doing Theology Under Global Empire.  (That title echoes his father's most famous book, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation.)   We never saw him.  He had a conflict develop (he was meeting with government officials about a new law that will give Protestants recognized status and rights previously extended only to Roman Catholics) and had asked another professor to cover for him.  Unfortunately, he had not been briefed about our expectations or the level of my students.  He was a young Phd in both philosophy and theology and focused his presentation on the deep background of Liberation theology in early 20^th century European philosophy.  My students didn't understand a word of it and what we needed was what Liberation Theology is doing NOW! 

To make matters worse, no one had ISEDET had arranged for us to visit the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights in the afternoon as I had asked.   Fortunately, we had an incredibly competent and concerned tour guide from the company that Semester at Sea works with in Buenos Aires.  She discovered the foul up, called the EMHR herself and, while they weren't expecting us, were pleased that we were coming.

At least Jayne and I got to spend some time in the building where we lived for a year thirty years ago.

We were greeted by the director, Arturo Blatesky, who had himself been a professor at ISEDET for years and claimed to recognize Barry immediately (though Barry has no memory of him!).   He spoke to us in front of a beautiful mural painted by the Argentine artist and human rights activist Adolpho Perez Esquivel (Barry attended the celebratory worship service welcoming him back to Argentina after he won the Nobel Peace Prize back in 1980.)

Interestingly, one of the first things he said was something like this, "Liberation Theology isn't an academic enterprise; it is first and foremost a spirituality that permeates the lives of those committed to the liberation of the poor and oppressed."   That was a perfect and welcome contrast to what we had heard at ISEDET (and a challenge to the way Barry has taught the class on the ship).

Arturo spoke to us with a stack of photographs in front of him.  After some introductory comments about Liberation Theology he began to talk to us about the photos.  They were mostly portraits of people who had disappeared in the Dirty War.  The first was a dear friend of his.  He told us the exact date at time he was kidnapped and when his body washed ashore along the banks of the Rio de la Plata.  It was part of what motivated the military dictators to take their victims further out to sea.  He showed us a picture of the daughter of the famous German New Testament scholar, Ernst Kasemann, who was studying at ISEDET when she was kidnapped and murdered.

One of the things we had wondered about was what the human rights organizations that were founded in response to the Dirty War 35 years ago or more are doing now.  The Dirty War is long over; the "disappeared" are known to be murdered and gone; the generals responsible are gradually acing prosecution.  We were pleased to learn that organizations like EMHR continue to be actve in promoting the rights of indigenous peoples, women, and gays and lesbians.  In addition, environmental issues are now part of their agenda.

It was a disappointing day, but surely the experience with Arturo salvaged it somewhat.

The picture shows the resurrected Jesus at the head of procession of Latin American martyrs in the struggle for justice, including some of the disappeared.  Notice in the background Columbus' three ships,