Books
“El Eternauta”: Argentine comic figure as a folk hero
1957 Héctor Germán oesterheld wrote a Comic book about an Alien Invasion in Buenos Aires and the Disappearance of many people. A fate that befell him during Argentina’s military dictatorship.
Alien Power in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. Send toxic snow, deadly beetles, and barbed the monster. The father of Juan Salvo comes into the fight with the powerful enemies that remain invisible and anonymous and just “you”. Juan Salvo is the “Eternauta”, the “eternal traveller”, you are wrong in the war against the Aliens at the end of in search of his family through time and space. This history of the Argentine Comic strip writer Héctor Germán oesterheld in his 1957 published the Comic “El Eternauta told”.
Until today, Héctor Germán Oesterhelds body has not been found
Twenty years later, oesterheld met a similar fate as his Comic book heroes: In the Comic the aliens ‘ merciless destruction of war in the streets of Buenos Aires. In the real Argentina, the military junta transferred under Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976, the Argentine population with state terror, in fear and terror. Oesterheld and his four daughters to lean in a left-wing resistance group against the military dictatorship. You will then be abducted and tortured. In order to share the fate of 30,000 Argentinians, the so-called “Desaparecidos”, the Disappeared. The daughters were murdered, told the family later. It is believed that Oesterheld was killed in 1979 by henchmen of the regime. From his corpse, lacking any trace until today.
“El Eternauta” is coming to Germany
Oesterhelds Comic with the impressive drawings by Francisco Solano López was in Argentina a great success. But made its way into the German market he found only now: In January, the Avant-Verlag, the German, published the first translation of the Argentine sci-Fi epic. The house of literature of Stuttgart shows a cartoon exhibition with the title “the myth of The Eternauta”.
Excerpt from “El Eternauta”. To the right in the picture: Alien adversary of the Hero, Juan Salvo
The roles of the journalist Anna Kemper brought with a long article that appeared in January 2015 in the “TIME”magazine Under the title “In search of the lost family”, tells the journalist the tragic fate of Oesterhelds family. The story she came back in 2009, when she researched in Argentina for another article. You saw pictures of Oesterhelds daughters, they tied, tells Anna Kemp in an interview with DW: “The four young women who are full of life, and of which you know that they have been killed in the dictatorship. And these are images that have not let go of me for years.” Five years later, Kemper met in Argentina with the remaining members of the Comic author.
When fiction becomes reality
When looking at Oesterhelds family history to fall alarmingly large Parallels between the Story in the Comic is told, and the history of Argentina: the Invasion of an invisible Power, the emerging resistance in the population, the captivity in the torture camp, and the endless search for the missing family members.
Icon image “Eternauta”: Here is the comic book hero graced the U-Bahn station “Uruguay” in Buenos Aires
As reality and fiction flow almost spooky in one another, shows the Comic exhibition at the “Eternauta” in the house of literature in Stuttgart up to 15. April. After that, you is 10. To see may in the Berlin Literary Colloquium. Anna Kemper is the co-curator of the exhibition. She, too, sees strong Parallels between the fate from the Comic book Hero, Juan Salvo, and the Hectór Germán Oesterheld.
Has Oesterheld had a premonition? Anna Kemper doesn’t believe that. The Comic from the 1950s was more oriented to the Cold war and in its action on many types of totalitarian rule applicable. But she believes, “is that you can see in this Comic already, what was Oesterheld for a personality, what were his values and that someone had to be with these values, then active”, as the military dictatorship in Argentina began. “Even if it was clear that he risked his life.”
The reappraisal of the time of the military dictatorship
The Chapter of the “Desaparecidos” in Argentina today. In recent years, especially under the government of Néstor Kirchner between 2003 and 2007 was driven by the review of the events from the time of the military dictatorship.
“El Eternauta” ends with the defeat of the hero, Juan Salvo: He is doomed to search forever for his family. “In order to identify still an incredible number of Argentines,” says Anna Kemper. Because until today, many don’t know what happened with your family members. Children’s search for their missing parents – and the other way around.
The aliens are attacking Buenos Aires with todbringendem snow
The “Eternauta” as a Symbol against Forgetting
In this respect, the “Eternauta” in the South American country is an important Symbol. He is a political figure that stands for the common struggle against overwhelming odds, and, “for standing up for the reappraisal of the dictatorship and for human rights,” says Anna Kemper.
Héctor Germán Oesterheld wrote after the first Comic, two sequels that were politically distinct and clear references to the Situation in Argentina showed. One of them he wrote already in the ground. The sequel, there are so far only in Spanish. The Avant publishing house wants to publish but, like the first part, on English – when exactly that will be, however, is not yet clear.
Argentina is not an isolated case
The more topical the story of “El Eternauta” and Oesterheld, through wars such as in Syria: According to Amnesty International, have disappeared under the Assad Regime 60,000 people. “These are one-to-one, the same stories, the same methods. You just need to replace the name. What happened in Argentina, is repeated today in various dictatorships, and also currently in Syria,” says Anna Kemper.