As they do every year on the anniversary of 25 April, Italian diplomatic and consular authorities in Buenos Aires today celebrated Liberation Day, which this year commemorates 80 years since the fall of Nazi-Fascism, by laying a wreath under the monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Argentine capital's iconic Plaza Italia.
In front of representatives of our community and of Argentine civil and military institutions, Ambassador Fabrizio Lucentini recalled 'the blood of the martyrs and of those who opposed dictatorship in Italy, that blood that allowed us the return of freedom and democracy', stressing that 'the legacy of those days must not be considered an acquired value'.
"Freedom, democracy and peace are conquered day by day, so today's is not just a celebration, but actually a reminder for all of us so that our social, daily commitment is in favour of peace, freedom and democracy," he said.
In his speech, Lucentini also addressed a thought to Pope Francis 'whose passing touches more than anywhere else, here, in his homeland and in the Italian community here present, because the Holy Father represents a symbolic figure of what Italian immigration has been in this country'.
For his part, Consul General Carmelo Barbera emphasised that the anniversary of the Liberation 'cannot but prompt us to reflect on the inestimable value of peace and freedom, which so many Italians, men and women, sought and found even after World War II in Argentina, reciprocating the opportunities generously offered to them with commitment, work, and dedication, without ever forgetting their homeland'.
Also present at the ceremony - in addition to delegations from the Comites, the Reduci, the National Alpine Association, and students from Italian schools - was the 96-year-old representative of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Vera Vigevani Jarach, a true symbol of the fight against all dictatorships, whose family of Jewish origin had to flee from Italy to Argentina in 1939 due to the approval of the racial laws, and whose daughter was kidnapped and made to disappear in 1976 by the military dictatorship.
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