A former Falkland fighter found the intimate diary he had written during the war

03/07/2020 - 15:04

• Clarín.com
• Society

Almost 38 years after the Falklands War, a former Argentine fighter met this Saturday with the intimate newspaper he had written in the Islands during the war.

This is the Santa Fe Sergio Daniel Stechina , whose notebook was exposed for four years in a showcase of the Malvinas Museum and South Atlantic Islands after being donated by the Argentine State in 2015.

Weeks ago, during a tour of the museum, a family from the city of Avellaneda, located in the north of Santa Fe, stopped to observe the notebooks exposed in a sector called "War diaries."

To his surprise, one of the texts began as follows: "If I fall in compliance with duty, whoever finds it (in the newspaper) will send it to this address : Rogelio L. Stechina, Barrio 'Don Pedro', (3561) , Avellaneda, Santa Fe. "

Sergio Daniel Stechina, upon receiving his notebook. (Malvinas Museum)

"The Don Pedro neighborhood is about five blocks from my old house, eight hundred kilometers from mine now. Don Rogelio - who passed away about six years ago - is Fabian's dad, a primary school classmate we nicknamed ' Gallo '. Fabián is Sergio's brother , who fought in Malvinas, ”said José Luis Aguilar, the neighbor of Avellaneda.

As soon as he returned to his city, Aguilar contacted the Stechina family to tell them what he had found during his visit to the Museum.

"Sergio has lived in the city of San Lorenzo for many years in the south of the province. He wrote the newspaper on the battle front. They went out to do a mission and when they returned to their base in Darwin it was already in English hands. his imminent capture, placed in a backpack the newspaper, a camera and a machete, and hid everything under some stones so that they did not fall into the hands of the English . At that time he took everything for lost, "Aguilar added.

This Saturday, finally, Stechina visited the Museum next to the group of veterans to which she belongs, family and friends, and received her notebook.

"I never thought I was going to meet this again," Sergio said, very excited. The director of the Malvinas Museum, Edgardo Esteban, gave him the newspaper in a ceremony in which more than 60 veterans, friends and family participated.