by Dalia Chiu
It’s not the first time I’ve crossed the gate of the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park. The afternoon is hot and the park is a cool oasis of native trees, cinnamon, patagua, araucaria and the old ombú, that strange half-grass tree that grows in front of and a few meters from the Wall of Names, a memorial that recalls the 226 detained politicians disappeared and executed in this detention centre between 1974 and 1978 and that today, Human Rights Day, is re-inaugurated with the inscription of 15 more names.
Their relatives are here and they carry red carnations, we are emotional because as it says at the entrance of this place of memory – forgetfulness is full of memory – and, as the survivors of this centre of torture and death, those who passed through this ancestral home at the foot of the Andes Mountains, we remember that in the darkness of terror we felt the scent of roses.
The photo report is also from Dalia Chiu:
