Does resentment help build a culture of peace?

As part of the range of activities organized by Casa España in Rio Gallegos (Argentina) to celebrate Hispanic Week, the video documentary entitled The human footprint. Memories of the survivors of the bombing of Guernica (La huella humana. El recuerdo de los supervivientes del bombardeo de Gernika) was shown on Wednesday 8th October. The activity was also organized by the Open Peace Forum at Rio Gallegos Academic Unit from Austral Patagonia National University and the Spanish Vice Consulate that operates in the city.

The video documentary looks at the bombing that the people of Guernica (Basque Country- Spain) were subjected to on April 26th 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack was carried out by the aviation troops of the German Condor Legion in collaboration with the national army directed by General Francisco Franco.

In putting on this activity the UNPA Open Peace Forum wished to contribute to the activities that promote a culture of peace in our community. Resentments towards those implied in the historical event should not obstruct the gestation of peaceful attitudes that promote the strengthening of acts of solidarity in our society.

Half way through the screening something unexpected happened, a power cut throughout the city. The participants took this time to describe how they felt, with most people saying they felt an overwhelming sense of resentment, certainly on a very instinctive level, especially in relation to fellow Chileans and in relation to the disappearances that took place in the most recent military dictatorship.

The issues of resentment and the need to forgive are still very much alive here. It’s much easier to analyse the issue of the bombing of Guernica that took place 70 years ago on another continent, than what happened over here, much of which is still undergoing investigation and judicial process under the instruction of democratic institutions. After 40 minutes of hot debate the power came back and the remainder of the video could be screened.

When we finished watching the documentary people’s feelings had changed and the German apologies and the testimonies given by the survivors made many people recognise the need to build peace upon solid bases.  “We are not to blame for what happened in the past, we are only responsible for the present and the future”, was the message expressed by a number of the people present, amongst them, a Spanish immigrant who had taken part in the civil war.

As the Letter of Peace says, people of today are not responsible for things that happened in history for the simple reason that we did not exist.  However, people should explore their memory completely and yet in the absence of resentment, thus enabling us to build society upon “solid foundations”. The freshness of these historical events makes it difficult to do this, and yet not impossible.

Ideas such as memory without resentments, sincere forgiveness, humble reconciliation, creative compensation were amongst the conclusions drawn by participants at the presentation- an important evaluation of our recent past and our own actions before it.