Mario Firmenich launches memoir on Argentina's militant past

Former Montoneros leader Mario Firmenich provided an exclusive excerpt of his upcoming book, Orígenes. Las raíces de nuestra militancia, in the print edition of Página 12. In the preview he recounts how his generation grew up under Juan Domingo Perón's populist state, benefitting from extensive social programs, and how the 1955 coup abruptly erased those gains, banning Perónist symbols and rewriting school curricula.

Firmenich describes his cohort as a “tsunami” that later surged into the 1973 election, bringing two million new voters aged 18‑25. The memoir reflects on the violence and proscription his peers faced and raises questions about self‑criticism of that period.

The book is scheduled for publication by Sudamericana next month.