I must admit that since I have lived in
Spain, it is not that I now have a chauvinistic feeling towards my
country of origin, but yes, I have been more interested in what
happens there.
That is why
in the few opportunities when there are news or talk about my country
I am hooked. Precisely this happened to me last summer, while I was
zapping channels, I was amazed to see a scene well known to me. It
was the case of a kidnapping that happened in the 90s. Although the
film was halfway through, I could not stop watching it.
For this
reason, the last time I was in my country, I looked for that video,
which left me with a double sensation. On the one hand, that the
social injustice that exists in my country is the engine of many
types of endless struggles. And on the other hand, that even the "bad
guys" can and do have a good side.
The
film which I refer to is: El camino del
guerrillero, made by Von Andreas
Pichler in 2007. The video begins with the news of that moment,
reporting the tragic decade of the kidnapping of businessman Jorge
Lonsdale in 1990, as well as the capture of some of the members of
the armed group Comisión Néstor Paz
Zamora (CNPZ) and identifying the leader
of said group: Miguel Nothdurfter.
Pichler,
far from focusing only on the kidnapping, tries to make the spectator
know, and tries to understand what led Miguel Nothdurfter to take up
arms. For this reason, the cinematographic work revolves around the
figure of Miguel Nothdurfter, a native of the alpine region of the
Tyrol, who received his basic training for the Franciscan order in
the city of Bolzano.
In
the first part of the video, we can see and meet Miguel Nothdurfter
from childhood until his youth, through the eyes of his mother, his
relatives, his friends and his teachers. We can see that Miguel
Nothdurfter was a charismatic leader, restless and a dreamer. Feeling
a call to serve the most disadvantaged, Miguel Nothdurfter was
ordained as a Jesuit and then went as a missionary to Bolivia in
1982.
From his arrival in Bolivia he could see
and live the worst face of inequality and social injustice from the
front row. He soon realized that being a priest was a privilege that
contrasted to the way of life of many poor people. And feeling that
from that figure of priest he could not reach the working-class and,
even more, could not achieve any change, he decided to leave the
Jesuits to study sociology and feel part of the ordinary people.
As a
university student, he understood the reality of Bolivia and its
problems. As a result in 1987, Nothdurfter created the Ejército
Patriótico de Liberación Nacional (EPLN)
and later the Comisión Néstor Paz Zamora,
with the intention of transforming society through revolutionary
action.
From this
moment Pichler skillfully intertwines the events, (the kidnapping of
businessman Jorge Lonsdale -representative of Coca-Cola in Bolivia-,
the attack on the American embassy, dynamiting the Kennedy's
monument, among many), with the comments of the survivors of the
armed group, with the letters that Nothdurfter sent to his mother and
friends). The impact of all this is to identify that the armed group
was made up of young people no older than 19, 20 or 22 years old. It
is compelling to hear their dreams of wanting a different country,
their audacity, their loyalty, their fears before those facts and
their tragic descent. Likewise, you can detect the lack of experience
and naivety they had when facing the police agency.
The descent
in many ways was fatal, the death of Lonsdale, Nothdurfter, some
members of the armed group, the suffering of Nothdurfter's mother,
who like many of us could not stop thinking about whether this
fight made sense or not. I was shocked by all the testimonies of the
survivors on the other side. But undoubtedly I am disturbed to
listen to Nothdurfter still with a very German accent singing the
most popular cueca of the country, which says: long live my country
Bolivia, a great nation, for her I give my life too, and my heart
too.
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