Next Monday Rosario and New York will join forces at a distance. In both cities there will be the acts of homage on the fifth anniversary of the attack that took place in Manhattan and in which five friends who graduated from the Polytechnic were killed. The first, in the morning in the Big Apple, will be organized by the government of that city. The others, in the afternoon and at the Cuna de la Bandera, will be at the head of the institute where they attended high school and whose graduation, 30 years later, they went to celebrate in the United States. The two calls will be crossed by a common message: the repudiation of this type of attack and the vindication of love as an antidote to hatred. Flowers, art, music and speeches will be part of these meetings in which mourners and survivors will play fundamental roles.
The incident occurred in 2017 when friends, part of a group of ten former students, were hit by a man in a van. That day, they were cycling through Lower Manhattan when an Uzbek identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29, entered the pedestrian lane with his rented vehicle and started running on passersby before crashing into a school bus.
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The tragedy deeply affected Rosario and became a cornerstone following the death of five local citizens. The bodies were repatriated and, in parallel, a long journey began until the trial against the accused, which has just begun. Meanwhile, the families of the victims have not stopped demanding justice as they continue to live painful days in a difficult search to rearm.
These themes will not be absent from the proceedings. In New York, the in-memoriam activity will begin at 9 (10 in Argentina) and will have an almost identical format to previous years, except during the pandemic.
It will consist of a walk that will start from the place where a Belgian tourist died (in the area of Pier 40) even during the murderous raid of the Uzbeks. At that point, the diplomatic authorities of that country and those close to the victim will participate. Then, attendees, including senior New York officials, will travel to the place where the five Rosario died (the highest number of deaths) and finally to the space where the attacker caused the deaths of two US citizens.
In all cases, flowers will be placed and words of homage will be heard with simplicity and emotion as premises.
In total it will not be more than an hour of tribute. In the case of the Argentines, before the deposition of the commemorative plaque and the deposition of the white roses, the consul general in New York, Santiago Villalba, will intervene. There will also be survivor Martín Marro (one of the graduates), along with his wife, who will depart from Boston, where they reside today. In addition, the Argentine ambassador to the United Nations Organization (UN), María del Carmen Squeff of Santa Fe, and the ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Federico Villegas, will participate on this occasion.
As La Capital has learned, the consul will demonstrate against all terrorist acts and acts of hatred and will reflect on the start of the trial five years after the episode.
Meanwhile, more than 8 thousand kilometers away, the Politecnico will begin, at 18:00, a ceremony conceived entirely at the school, albeit in contact with the widows, who will be at the party.
After the meeting of the former students and the arrival of the guests, the director of the Poli, Juan Farina, will open the event with a speech at the end of which a video with photos and Claudio Carranza, one of the mentors of the initiative and former colleague, will refer to the bonds of friendship.
After this request, Lina Ferruchi, daughter of one of the deceased, will read a text of her paternity.
Among the outstanding issues, 10 stools will be delivered (one for each graduate participating in the trip) with a special stamp.
The activity will close with the performance of a dancer while a flame will always remain lit.
The meeting will also be an opportunity to inaugurate a mural created by the Winter Garden school of Buenos Aires, which saw the participation of students from the first to the sixth year and which will remain in the central hall of the Polytechnic.
“We invited the living forces of the city to jointly repudiate violence in the world and to accompany the struggle of the families of the victims. We are moved by what happened and even more by the membership of this institution with respect to the deceased “, said Farina in contact with this newspaper before highlighting a sentence by Eduardo Galeano in reference to the contempt for human life by terrorism, which has He got himself printed on the invitation cards.
