THE LONGEST SUNDAY

It is Sunday morning...had little sleep.
 I kept thinking about our visitors last night in our hotel  lobby.

"Senora Brewer. I  am Mario Alfredo Mendoza. Your MPA  contacted me this morning to see if I know anything about Mario Z Mendoza. I do. He was my great uncle,  and I am his namesake.   (facsimile)  This is my sister, Anna."
They were  beautiful, maybe 20 and 22 years old.
Carmine was speechless. She reached out and hugged them both.
Then said, " Of course you are Mendozas; you both favor the Mario I knew in 1953 so much." She started asking questions. 
"Please. Not in a public place like this. Our older sister wants to prepare a backyard picnic for you tomorrow afternoon. We hope you will come. We would like to learn more about the time our uncle was in Memphis."
We agreed. He will pick us up at 2 pm.


The other thing on my mind is an e-mail I received from an old friend, Billy___who knows about our mission to find Mario.
MARIO COULD BE ONE OF THESE:
During the 1970s Argentina lived a period of widespread military repression on the civilian population. Under the pretext of the "war against subversion" the military and police authorities develped a machiavellic campaign of terror. All civil rights - freedom of expression, justice, association vote - were eliminated. Thousands of citizens were unjustly put in prison where they endured inhuman conditions and lived under the pain of torture and the fear of death day to day.

Nothing is more horrorific, however, that what was done to 30,000 people now known as "the disappeared". Taken from their homes, blindfolded, beaten, they were taken to secret concentration camps, where they awaited, without knowing, amidst blows and torture, death.

Of course we don't have any evidence at this point that  this happened to Mario. But it gives one pause.... I won't mention it to Carmine and Beanie for now...
After breakfast,   we caught a cab to the Buenos Aires main cathedral. We are not Catholics and did not understand a word of the service. Nevertheless, it was a sweet time of worship.





Then we went back to the hotel and anxiously waited for Mario to pick us up for the picnic!! Will tell you all about that later.
Love, annie**********************************************