The last leper colony in Argentina: four neighborhoods, a school and bodies punished for discrimination

“El hijo del chamamé”, a classic by Mario Bofill and the entire Litoral, does not exist only as the protagonist of the song of the same name: he resides in General Rodríguez and is an accordion secret.

Fernando Lalanda dances.

He dances and stomps.

He carries his

on his feet and represents it on stage.

He was born at

where he and his family live, along with 208 other people who suffered or are suffering from

Leprosy.

Fernando's grandparents and parents also contracted it.

Not so his daughters, born in the Sommer;

nor his wife, another pure-bred chamamecera.

Four neighborhoods surround the imposing health center.

There is a church, a retirement center, a club, a theater and a school, where children from different surrounding areas go.

In turn, the headquarters of the Association of Inmates works on the property, which gave a strong fight against privatization in the nineties, ensuring the survival of the

In 1941, the Hospital named after Dr. Baldomero Sommer, an Argentine dermatologist and leprologist who dedicated a large part of his life to the study and dissemination of knowledge about this disease, was inaugurated.

History and stories, along 275 hectares: 50, urbanized.

Fact doesn't always kill fiction.

Hansen represents, as a specialist would say, 

. "

Leprosy has been curable for decades and no longer requires mandatory isolation.

However, the biblical stigma, conceived by the work and (mis)fortune of man, still stands.

The physical and neurological sequelae suffered by patients, as strong as discrimination and prejudice, lead many —protected by Law 22,964— to organize their lives around the hospital that treats them.

Origins and present of leprosy in the country

"The arrival of leprosy in Argentina is linked to the Spanish colonizers, the increase in river trade and the slave trade," says

, a dermatologist specializing in leprosy and director of Sommer.

The doctor emphasizes that the history of the institution, where he has worked for 33 years, reflects the evolution of concepts of leprosy in the country and in the world.

The "Sommer" land occupies almost 300 hectares: it houses a hospital of medium to high complexity, four wards and four wards for Hansen patients.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

The Sommer was founded in 1941, as part of the

.

It was added to four other specialized sites: the colonia Dr. Pedro Baliña sanatorium (in Misiones);

the Maximiliano Aberastury sanatorium, on Isla del Cerrito (Chaco);

the San Francisco del Chañar hospital (Córdoba);

and the Dr. Enrique Fidanza Hospital in Colonia Ensayo (Entre Ríos).

At the beginning of the 20th century, isolation was mandatory and parents were separated from their children.

occurred

, with the development of sulfones and, later, with the creation of triple drug treatment.

“The current fear of leprosy is completely unjustified.

With the first dose of rifampicin, 98% of the bacilli are killed.

It is performed after 12 to 24 months, in multibacillary forms;

in non-contagious forms, it lasts six months.

Subsequently, the patient is discharged and is infectious negative.

The lesions can progress because the nerves are damaged, but

”, clarifies Marrone.

The dermatologist Gustavo Marrone is a specialist in leprosy and has worked for 33 years at the "Baldomero Sommer" National Hospital.

He is currently in charge.

From his office he spoke with Clarín.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Even more important: the doctor points out that, to

, a person has to live with the patient for five to ten years, five days a week, under the same roof, for a minimum of four hours.

The recipient, for his part, must have an immunity problem: 95% of people who come into contact with the bacillus do not develop the disease.

The representatives of the Boarding Association are chosen through elections, every two years.

They receive the Clarín team and show the guest book.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Despite this,

The endemic area is made up of Rosario, northern Corrientes, part of Entre Ríos, Chaco, Formosa, Santa Fe and Salta.

In 2021, due to the pandemic, there were 143 detected cases.

Final 2022 statistics are expected to show growth.

Prevention and education campaigns are essential.

Today, the Sommer continues to be a national reference in leprosy.

In addition, it was transformed into a

, of medium to high complexity, that cares for people from different municipalities.

It provides tomography, physiatry, rehabilitation, cardiology, diabetes, medical clinic, dentistry, ophthalmology, dermatology, pneumology, intensive care, surgery, rheumatology, hepatology, oncology, and palliative care services.

“

and must be integrated into general medicine as one more disease.

Many patients are isolated in the hospital, due to the consequences or because they have nowhere to go, protected by law.

If they show up in the places they used to frequent, they are likely to be stigmatized or violated.

The rejection continues to exist and we must combat it”, sums up Marrone.

Living and dancing in the Sommer

On the hospital grounds there are

: Madre de la Cruz, the most populous;

San Martin;

Summer;

and Father Arnau.

Counting those who stay in the

—who cannot care for themselves due to complications of leprosy, such as blindness or amputations—, there are

who live alone, with family (in many cases, free from Hansen) or in shared residences.

The spaces are wide and there is no shortage of businesses, some set up by the inhabitants themselves.

"I always say that it's like a private neighborhood," jokes the owner of a restaurant.

He is about 45 years old and no Hansen print.

Hansen's recovered patients are trained and work closely with the permanent staff of the hospital who treated them.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

There are recovered patients who

For example, the saddlery, where insoles and prostheses are made.

Others collaborate in tasks within the neighborhood, in exchange for a

, a small consideration of approximately $3,800.

As a parlor attendant, he chooses to preserve his name, and knew times of yore, when "nuns prevented men and women from getting together."

Those who can, exercise different trades, inside and outside the Sommer.

Of course, not everyone can sustain work activities, due to age or the wear and tear of the disease.

There are renovated houses, others that maintain the façade from the beginnings of the hospital;

animals;

vehicles;

manicured gardens and others abandoned.

In that sense, they are

, with a roof, services and food provided by the hospital.

Napping is an unwritten law.

Fernando and Luis are members of the Baldomero Sommer Boarding School Association, a civil association with a history that fought against Menem's privatization.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Music always plays at Fernando Lalanda's home

.

His grandfather, his parents and his sister had leprosy.

His father, from Corrientes, had passed through Isla del Cerrito before arriving at Sommer and "he said that he lived under a bridge, out of shame."

He died at the age of 90.

The mother lives and is a neighbor.

Neither Emilce Meza, Fernando's wife, nor his daughters —who go to the local school and are from there— contracted the disease.

Call me at home ❤️🇦🇷💃

He is young, he is 30 years old.

, although Corrientes blood runs through his veins.

Since he was a boy, he returned to his province and took care of field tasks.

He liked it, he confesses, “staying up all night and drinking”, but he noticed that the next day he woke up with a fever.

Around the age of 15, he began to notice spots on his skin.

“I stopped wearing shorts so they don't make fun of me.

Little by little, I realized that I had less and less grip ”, he recalls.

At 20 she returned to Buenos Aires, to the same place where she was given birth.

He still works leather, he is a craftsman and saddler, although the chamamé identifies him.

His talent took him to Colón, to television (recently he was on Channel 9), to social networks and to the National Festival of his province.

Although he tends to get tired and the heat beats him down, dancing and the accordion turn him on.

He wears traditional clothes: field breeches, shirt, hat, scarf, belt, boots.

His feet, which have brought him more than one problem, surrender to the rhythm naturally, forgetting about Hansen, and invite those who have the pleasure of looking at them.

After the introductions, the adrenaline drops and Fernando recovers his air.

Che's first revolution and Walsh's "island trades"

Carlos Correa was born before the Sommer was founded, where he currently lives, along with his wife, daughter and son-in-law.

His course synthesizes that of the historical Hansenians, who suffered the harshest mistreatment and punishment, a reflection of the ups and downs of medicine and social fear.

The man has stunted hands in the shape of a claw.

He dodges the camera, to avoid being seen by relatives or acquaintances of his daughter.

But he narrates.

And his words are worth a thousand images.

In times of forced confinement, he was "prisoner" —as he himself defines— on Isla del Cerrito, where he slept on tables that "could not even be called beds."

There he "smelt from afar the smell of rotten food" that he ate daily and fought with health personnel, who eventually put him in a canoe and "released" him in the neighboring town of Paso de la Patria.

On that site, some time later,

published his necessary chronicle "The resurrected island".

It was 1966 and medication, as well as notions about the disease, had taken a leap.

But the fears persisted, even subtly, on the part of someone as unprejudiced as the journalist, who constantly washed his hands with water, soap and "symbolically inside" with gin.

Rodolfo Walsh was an author of essential chronicles.

In 1966, he visited the Chaco leprosarium and wrote the article "The Island of the Resurrected" for Panorama Magazine.

There, he reflected on the prejudices that obscured the advances of science.

The journalist decreed: “Early diagnosis and hospitalization seem essential for effective treatment.

Against this conspire in Argentina ignorance and misery in rural areas where leprosy is widespread;

a reactionary legislation that explicitly

, and intends to tear them from their homes by police, without taking care of their families”.

Through his

of him, he denounced the silence to which Isla del Cerrito was condemned;

the contempt and ignorance that consumed “the hearts of the healthy”.

Outside his house, thermos in hand and surrounded by part of his family, Carlos continues his story.

He remembers, this time, his passing through the San Francisco del Chañar hospital, in Córdoba, today converted into the José Julián Puente hospital.

Due to his age, he did not come across one of the most famous Argentines who set foot in the place at the beginning of the fifties:

Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967), during his youth.

Before establishing himself as "Che", he toured Latin America on a motorcycle, along with his friend.

In leper colonies of different countries.

It was a breaking point for his conscience.

An advanced student of Medicine, Ernesto developed a keen interest in leprosy, which he understood as a

It was years before the guerrilla “Che”, when he was still playing rugby and his nickname was “Fuser”.

Was the revolutionary glimpsed in that young man who traveled, investigated, and played soccer with those punished by a health system that he also longed to transform?

Alberto Granado, his companion on the first Latin American journey, introduced him to the subject: a biochemist, he worked at the

.

Little by little, rebellion was sown in the future leader of the Cuban feat.

In Peru, friends visited the Huambo leprosarium, where they were frightened by the general disastrous state, how the "condemned who (...) see their lives go by, seeing death arrive."

His reflection was that only "the long-suffering and fatalistic spirit" of the

of the mountain could bear such treatment.

The most transformative experience for Che occurred in another country, 1,100 kilometers from the Peruvian capital, in the leprosarium of San Pablo de Loreto.

Faced with the

, surrounded by mosquitoes, Guevara and Granado studied, cared for patients;

They understood how marginalization, obscurantism and misery were combined in the souls and bodies of those patients, transformed into comrades.

During his farewell, an accordionist with sticks for fingers and a blind singer improvised a serenade.

Balls, talks and fishing rods acted as weapons of a

Testimonials from doctor and patient, although out of date, coincide in essentials:

of Hansen's patients, the importance of committed professionals, the scourge of segregation, the need for historical reparation in the present tense.

A president of the Nation appears before the residents of Sommer

The nineties began.

The decade of the “branch that stops, branch that closes”, of services auctioned off as merchandise in

In the fury of the budget cut, many establishments dependent on the central State were transferred to the provinces.

Funds were tight.

By 1993, four of the five leper colonies—those in Misiones, Chaco, Córdoba, and Entre Ríos—had closed.

Former President Carlos Menem during his tenure.

Photo: Cecilia Prophetic

Sommer's sentence had also been established and published in the Official Gazette.

Then his inmates moved to the center of the City of Buenos Aires.

"Can you imagine how the president would be if a march of lepers appeared in all the media?" reflects a historic neighbor.

The "Baldomero Sommer" remains, to this day, a national hospital.

His patients did.

The

—currently a civil association with legal status— was born with the hospital.

At first, the institution's management appointed its members.

Since 1958, patients have chosen their representatives.

Every two years they have elections and there were several lists: the candidates campaign, distribute flyers, an electoral board is formed.

Here, health is political.

God is Argentine and leper

"God is a leper."

The photo of the supporters of

with a poster that shows the face of Messi accompanied by that phrase circulates among the residents of the Sommer.

They forward it on WhatsApp, they show it to the doctors, to the

In soccer, where discriminatory labels abound, leprosy is part of the identity of the leader of the national sport par excellence, of the captain of the National Team, of the world champion: leprosy is pride

The recent rumor that Lío can once again step on the Colossus Marcelo Bielsa - where he demonstrated his magic so long ago - is taken as a blessing.

Rosario, March 4, 2023. A "leper" flag in support of Messi, during a match against Rosario Central.

Photo: Juan Jose Garcia.

fans and soccer players

have been known as “lepers” since the beginning of the last century, when they decided to participate in a benefit meeting for the Hansen patients at Hospital Carrasco.

His rival,

, would have refused to attend.

Hence, the nickname given to his followers: the

The nicknames - whose origin was not confirmed by the clubs - are part of the folklore of Argentine soccer.

The divine character of leprosy on the field counterbalances its representation in the

Especially in the

, where illness is equivalent to sin and punishment (only salvageable by Yahweh or the prophets, as intermediaries).

“All the time that the sore is in him, he will be unclean;

he will be unclean, and will dwell alone;

His dwelling shall be outside the camp”, can be read in Leviticus (13: 45-46).

And also: "The garment (...) in which there is such a plague will be burned, because leprosy is malignant" (Leviticus 13: 47-59).

Leprosy carries the stigma of being a biblical disease.

However, the relationship with the Church is not linear and, in the Sommer, there is a chapel to which dozens of patients attend.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

“In the New Testament there is a change.

Jesus is love, he is health”, says

, who is in charge of the church located on the Baldomero land.

The Virgin of the Miraculous Medal is the patron saint of the chapel where she gives catechism and masses, which is regularly attended by twenty people.

The number decreased with the pandemic, since a total protection of the internees was signed up.

The presence of the priest continues a long line of parish priests who officiate in the Sommer.

Costa notes that one of them,

His name is remembered on a plaque given by the neighbors.

A hospital against silence

In General Rodríguez wind blows from the northeast.

Many

ité populate the houses of the Sommer.

They come from the Argentine Northeast, an endemic area for Hansen.

Tones from Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Chaco, missionaries.

Cane and sapucay accent.

The hospital's unofficial music is the

It sounds at Christmas, at neighborhood parties, when Fernando and Emilce want to pass on a bit of their childhood to their daughters.

“When I came the first time, I couldn't wait to leave and I went to my payments.

I came back a year.

Here we find a place in the world... because we are among peers.

Some better, others worse”, says a neighbor.

, tinged with fear of people's fear of him, who caused him so much damage.

Luis has one wish: to return to his native Chaco.

He is prevented from doing so by the fear of rejection that he knew when he told his family about his illness.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Next to him sits Luis, an intern who took four years to talk about his diagnosis.

He preferred silence, even when the solitude of Pavilion 3, dedicated to isolated critical patients, flooded him.

After several years, he communicated with his relatives.

Very timidly, they are accepting the truths of the disease, revealed by science, but denied by

“My dad turned 75 now.

His wife came to her senses, my brothers are assuming my condition.

It's missed.

What will happen when I go to Chaco?

I don't know".

Luis smiles when he thinks of his sister and her nephews, who moved to José C. Paz and usually receive him;

he falls if he remembers the friends who "write from afar, without wanting to see".

are

intuited on his body;

and, above all, listen to each other.

In the Sommer, as in any neighborhood, no house is the same.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

But this is not a sad song.

Although the number "Conjunto pena y olvido" appears at every chamacera meeting — "breaking her voice up like a lament from the heart" —, there is never a lack, as in the song, "the peasantry with a perfume of falling in love."

In the almost small-town afternoons, many take their chairs out into the street, drink tereré, talk with other residents, discuss or laugh.

They would not be there if it were not for the leprosy.

However, leprosy does not rule in that corner of the west, where everyone takes care of themselves, they look for it, they make friends, they have children, they live, they come and go, they come and go.

The neighborhoods, like the hospital, have more than eighty years of history (and geography).

GS

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