2023-05-17 03:15:00
Cesar Ramon Gutierrez, DAYS 5,095,760
Centenary
In Rincón de los Sauces on May 8, 2023, with deep pain and an anguished soul, but with the temperance and peace that only Jesus can give us, we accompany and say goodbye, together with more than a thousand fellow construction workers, the remains of Juan Ángel Godoy, “Rancho”.
49 years after that internal commission in Planicie Banderita in which we did things that scandalized many, sheltered in our only armor that were our companions. There we were caught by the criminal coup d’état of 1976, at 03:15 in the morning they grabbed us by the hair, one by the gendarmerie and others by the police. When we met again, union activity was totally prohibited, but Rancho told us: “these soldiers are not going to prevent me from doing something for our compañeros.”
A long time later, they charged him, the police beat him up, and left him for dead. At the clinic he was a uniform bag with bruises from head to toe. When he recovered, they gave him hours to leave the province of Neuquén.
37 years after the historic walk of Piedra del Águila, with Rancho we had the blessing of Tata Dios to walk with our companions from Piedra del Águila to Av. Argentina de Neuquén, together with them we slept between zampas and jarillas, the torrential rain it got us all wet equally (channel 9 of Bs. As. has images) and our feet were as broken as theirs.
When Rincón de los Sauces went through its worst malaria, when everything stopped, when not a single job could be found, Rancho appeared organizing a small soup kitchen so that some people could eat and that pot began to grow and grow and the fight began from there. (words from a colleague on the long and cold night of 05/07/2023).
With tears in his eyes, another remembered when Rancho came forward and stood between them and the police, who had come from Neuquén to repress, and told them: “Don’t come with weapons to kill, come with work so that your compañeros can bring food to their families.” and live with dignity.
It was shocking and even moving to see a circle made up of more than 1,200 workers treating each other with care, as if taking care of each other in silence, tinged with applause and a “Long live Rancho damn it” with their fists raised high, as if reaffirming that the struggles workers continue.
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