The journey began at 17:00hrs last Sunday 27th December with a music and dance festival in Plaza Buján, located in Paso del Rey, Moreno. Representatives from different groups performed their typical dances and groups of children did artistic gymnastics. In turn, well known musicians participated including Piero, Victorio Menghi, Franco, Los Ángeles del Rock, El Cielo, Las Voces Errantes, Rosa Rojas and Gianfranco Alkalá.
Meanwhile the parade started from La Reja, Park of Study and Reflection, also in Moreno, combining members from the World March International Base Team, Peronista Youth, Community for Human Development, Silo’s Message, the Humanist Party and Convergence of Cultures, among other organizations.
The 6 block long parade traversed the city accompanied by a convoy of firefighters, cars and cyclists to end up in Plaza Buján where the Mayor of Moreno, Andrés Arregui, along with more than 500 people, awaited the marchers.
At 20:30hrs., having made their way through the crowd, the international team climbed up on stage where speeches were made by Andrés Arregui, Mayor of Moreno; Alejandro Roger, coordinator of the World March in Moreno and Guillermo Sullings, spokesperson for Humanism for Argentina.
The Mayor of Moreno thanked everyone who made the worldwide project possible, which started on 2nd October in New Zealand, and said of responsibilities concerning violence: “Some of us have more responsibility than others, but it is the responsibility of all of society to work towards overcoming violence.”
Alejandro Roger thanked the town councillors, with special thanks to Adriana Palacios, the Mayor, and all relating to the religions and expressions of religiosity that participated in the project because “with their work they are causing the Universal Human Nation to grow from the very bottom of the human heart” and he added “I want to thank our guide and inspiration for nonviolence who has accompanied the World March for Peace and Nonviolence from Punta de Vacas, Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, inspiration for active nonviolence”.
Lastly, Guillermo Sullings declared: “This march arrived at Moreno and in its work it aims to raise awareness about the need to dismantle nuclear arsenals, the need to do away with every kind of violence, not just physical violence, because hunger is violence too.”
In conclusion he said: “The true march is you, the towns that stand up and work for nonviolence, because while violence registers on a worldwide scale in statistics, it has a face in every town: our friends, ourselves, who suffer violence on a day to day basis and because of this, it is important that rise up to their feet when the march passes through.”
Gianfranco Alkalá was in charge of the journey’s end, and along with his band livened up the night and the dance quartet, in which, according to council sources, some 20 people participated.
*(Translation: Rupert James Spedding)*
