MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A museum paying homage to those who fought on both sides

National Malvinas Museum, Highway N° 9, Oliva, Cordoba.

Over the last thirty years the National Malvinas War museum of Argentina in the city of Oliva in the province of Cordoba, has become the country’s largest and most important of its sort

Set in the former cargo yards of the local railway station, the museum houses numerous objects from the war, including a A4C Skyhawk, a Canberra bomber and a Pucara ground attack aircraft, a full scale size replica of the bow of the cruiser ARA General Belgrano and an Argentine Navy amphibious landing craft.

The museum was originally the brainchild of then-schoolboy Gabriel Fioni who at the time of the war started writing to the families of Argentine servicemen killed in the conflict to express his condolences and offer his support.

Today it is arguably the finest museum of its sort, housing all sorts of items – Argentine, British and Islander – donated to the museum over the years.

Within the bow of the Belgrano is the two storey museum with literally hundreds of items on exhibition, ranging from pictures of different events of the war to captured British flags and weapons, to pieces of Argentine aircraft shot down during the war and even a couple of Falkland Island Defence Force Lee Enfield rifles.

Just about anything you could imagine seems to have found its way to this off the beaten track museum. Mixed among the uniforms, photographs and souvenirs of different protagonists of the war are some amazing items such as the jump seat of one of the Skyhawk aircraft that flew combat missions during the conflict or the memorial on the sidewalk to the late Argentine Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Doglioli, who not only helped negotiate the Argentine surrender in 1982, but returned to the Islands in 2001 with war correspondent Sir Max Hastings and Brigadier Julian Thompson.

In prominent display is the ribbon sent earlier this year by Sea Harrier ace, Commander Nigel “Sharkey” Ward, to the son of one of the pilots of the Argentine Hercules C-130 transport planes he shot down on 1 June 1982 that reads “For a hero, now flying with angels. Sharkey Ward.”

Unlike some memorials to the war, the Oliva museum is not jingoistic and for that matter, not even particularly nationalistic. It is largely about the human beings that went to the war, remembering the sacrifices they made and specially, ensuring that their memory is not forgotten.

Over years Fioni, who has largely funded the museum out of his own pocket with the help of several local friends with whom he set up a foundation, has been in contact with thousands of veterans and of next of kin and is highly respected as someone who keeps out of the nationalist vitriolic and strives to build bridges that help remember this chapter of recent history.

Looking through the visitor’s book it is comforting to see entries by British visitors, all of whom praise the good work being done.

Asked what his dream would be, Fioni says that, above all, he would love to see the dispute resolved for once and for all adding that he looks forward to being able to visit the Islands to see the place he has done so much to promote for himself.

“I would love to work out some way of helping preserve the rapidly disappearing history of the war. I am sure that we could easily reach an agreement with the Falkland Islands Museum and the British military museums to ensure that this happens, exchanging objects with a common goal in mind.”

“I would love to have a Sea Harrier on exhibition and I am sure some day there will be one,” sitting alongside the Argentine planes they so intensely hunted down thirty years back.

Sixty miles south of the city of Cordoba in a city famous for being part of the wealthy provincial farmland, is a museum that reminds us that thirty years ago a war happened and that it had its consequences that will live with us for years to come.

Thankfully, it is in the hands of caring people who understand that paying homage to those who fought on both sides is the right thing to do.

In doing so the Museum gives veterans, next of kin and general public the chance of learning a bit of history, remembering the great sacrifices made and keeping the memories alive every day of the year and not only on the red letter days.
 

Nick Tozer - Buenos Aires