Mirna Goldberger – Argentina
Goldberger discusses how the de facto government in Argentina led to her immigration to the U.S.
Middle School and Upper School Spanish Teacher Mirna Goldberger talked about her story of immigrating to the U.S. from Argentina in the '70s. During her childhood, Argentina was under the control of President Juan Peron, who studied fascism in Italy and provided refuge to several World War II war criminals.
Goldberger explained how her Jewish relatives were immigrated from Hungary to Argentina. There is a historical precedent of Jewish persecution, in Goldberger's case from the pogroms in Russia-occupied Ukraine.
“My granny had already been by just luck with my grandpa who was from Budapest, they had already been married, and he had studied electrical engineering in Berlin, and the Germans gave him a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, and they never went back. That was the story of my dad's side, and so they settled, basically, with a new beginning in his career, a new language, from zero, in Argentina.” Goldberger said.
However, Goldberger’s time in Argentina came to a forceful end. Goldberger shared the terror when the armed Marxist guerillas sent an ultimatum to her father threatening to kill him if he didn’t collaborate with them. During that time in Argentina, there was a lot of hatred towards people of Jewish faith, and the government persecuted these people by blackmailing and threatening them.
The questioning goes far beyond Argentina, rather the beginning of Jewish history and stereotypes regarding education and wealth.
Letter threatening Goldberger's family. Photo Courtesy of Edward Flint, letter courtesy of Mirna Goldberger. Editor's Note: Names in this letter have been censored for safety.
Letter threatening Goldberger's family. Photo Courtesy of Edward Flint, letter courtesy of Mirna Goldberger. Editor's Note: Names in this letter have been censored for safety.
"We received this letter... and that night, we ran to Uruguay," Goldberger said. "I say it so lightly, but it was chaos. I was barely nine and I was terrified."
Through her experience, Goldberger learned to appreciate everyone’s differences and how intricate people are.
“I find that in general, people encourage everyone to be the average, and none of us are average, we all come from different stories, but the goal is that everyone is the same, but at the same time, nobody is.”
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