Continued from Part 3

The war displays highlight the corruption and downright creepiness of the military leaders, but also demonstrate how even those most victimized believed in the Malvinas cause. One of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, mothers of those tortured, disappeared and killed by the military dictatorship, holds a note proclaiming the Malvinas Argentine, even as she protests in front of the Casa Rosada.


One has to really understand Argentina to grasp its profound meaning. It shows how deeply Argentines love and miss the Malvinas, like a body part ripped from them still felt by phantom nerves, and simultaneously delegitimizes the military government and its actions.

Another case contains a 1980s magazine, a little boy on the cover with various letters on a table asking what happened to the chocolate he sent to soldiers serving during the war. It show how terrible this government was – it did not just take away lives and freedom, it stole candy from babies too. Here you’ll also find soldiers’ uniforms including boots and the infamous cotton sneakers some soldiers were given. There’s also my favorite display, dozens of early 1980s television sets stacked together explaining how media worked under the dictatorship.

Falklanders will tell you the war and occupation negate any negotiation from the 1960s between the Crown and Buenos Aires.  Argentines will tell you, and this is where this part of the museum seems to support that notion, the military government was not legitimate, and therefore, modern, democratic Argentina shouldn’t be considered responsible for its actions.

And this is where we find ourselves today, more than 30 years after the war, with an impasse that seems inexplicable to English speakers, and logical to Argentines.

(Of course, ironically, around the time of the writing of this article, the British Embassy in the United States joked about the anniversary of burning down the White House 200 years ago, so conflicts maybe never end regardless of great relations.)

Giles, the Director, told me the museum can help foreigners better understand this Argentine position. “We want to help them, and to insist to the British what we feel about the place. This is a museum of peace,” he said, adding, “peace with a deep conviction.”

Giles continued, “it is a museum which invites peace, and which invites dialogue,” and with that in mind, he highlighted the display Distinct Views, where an array of Argentine political parties present their opinions of the Islands and where they stand in the country’s history. No matter how different Peronists might be from socialists or the right wing, or radicals, he said, “all consider the Malvinas to be Argentina’s.” Near this display is one of the United Nations resolution, evidence according to Giles that “the Argentine government looks permanently for dialogue.”

The tagline for the Museum is “Paz, Memoria, y Sobernía.”  Peace, Memory and Sovereignty. It’s that last word that is of course the issue.  Still, curator Miremont thinks, visitors should use the Museum as a starting ground to form their own opinions.

As someone who is an American born English speaker who can vividly recall the time period of the war, I found the museum fascinating on several levels. Additionally, as someone who has lived in both the United Kingdom and in Argentina, and has also visited the Falklands, writing about them for Bloomberg News on oil exploration and its possible role in future independence for the Islands, and another looking at the war and military history and nature including visits to the outer islands for seals and penguins, along with a piece for the New York Times where I called it one of the best places to visit for 2013, I do believe it is important to visit the Museum with an open mind.

Yes, the museum is something polemical, and some might call it propaganda. My view is that the English speaking visitor, who might come with either a very strong opinion of the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands conflict, or none at all, should visit, seeing the Museum as part of a continuum of Argentina’s history and relationship with the rest of the world. Only then might you understand the feeling many Argentines have that a piece of their country somehow went missing.

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Article Part 4