Through Decree No. 2596/22, it was established that on June 14 of each year the commemoration of the “National Street Sweeper Day” be held, in homage to the priest Mauricio Kleber Silva, street sweeper worker of the “Corralón Municipal de Floresta”, detainee who disappeared during the last civic-military dictatorship, in accordance with the provisions of National Law 27,069 that establishes it.
Therefore, within this framework, an act was held in the session hall of the Honorable Deliberative Council of General Pueyrredon.
Roberto Gandolfi (author of the initiative), Mariana Cuesta, Vito Amalfitano, Verónica Lagos, Roberto “Chucho” Páez, Sol de la Torre and Virginia Sívori (FdT) attended; Daniel Nunez (UCR); EMSUR representatives; Bishop Gabriel Mestre and Sister Marta, as well as a group of street sweepers from the city.
The National Law 27,069 of the year 2015 on June 14 of each year as “National Sweeper’s Day” in tribute to Mauricio Silva, a street sweeper priest who disappeared on June 14, 1977.
This project aimed to recover, for the collective memory, the life testimony of Kleber Silva Irebarnegaray (1925-1977), first name of Mauricio Silva, Brother of the Gospel, street sweeper priest, who was detained and disappeared when he was sweeping Margariños street. Cervantes of the city of Buenos Aires, on June 14, 1977.
The aforementioned national regulations sought to recognize all the workers in Mauricio Silva, who, according to CONADEP data, were a favorite target of the last military dictatorship, as well as the eighty priests who disappeared at the same time.
Kleber “Mauricio Silva”, was born in Uruguay on September 20, 1925. The humble condition of his family is reflected in his birth certificate when he was “exonerated from paying the stamp for justifying poverty”.
Together with Jesus, one of his four brothers and who would be his inseparable companion, they enter the Salesian Minor Seminary. Mauricio continues his studies in Argentina in the province of Córdoba, among his fellow students and promotion is the one who was later the Bishop Don Jaime de Nevares, one of the few who confronted the de facto government denouncing its violation of human rights and requested , in the Episcopal Conference, that steps be taken to find out “what had happened to Mauricio.” Also in his class was Carlos Dorniak, the first priest killed by Triple A.
His destination, once ordained, was Patagonia in Puerto San Julián. Mauricio’s time as a Salesian, both as a seminarian and as a priest, leaves an indelible memory in the place. His love for bringing joy to the children of the south, leads him to form “the group of happy children”, and for months ask for candy to announce at a patron saint party that “the day of glory has arrived” and the children will find a carpeted patio of treats
Back in Uruguay, due to family problems, he decides to stay. He joins the diocesan clergy. He accompanies young couples, he is also committed to the March of the Cañeros, led by Sendic.
It was the time of the Second Vatican Council and the words of Arturo Paoli, emblematic Italian priest discovers the Spirituality of Bro. Carlos de Foucauld, to follow the model of Jesus of Nazareth, to find it in the face of the most humble brother, of those who occupy the “last place”.
He returns to Argentina and joins the Brothers of the Gospel, one of the congregations of the spiritual family of Foucauld. In the integration process he will spend time in Angelelli’s Rioja. Then in Fortín Olmos, to finish in the city of Buenos Aires, in a community in the neighborhood of La Boca and then in a tenement house on Malabia Street, where he created a small community.
When looking for a job, seeing a “dirty little man picking up garbage”, he decides that this was the job he wanted and he gets it.
As a sweeper, Mauricio integrates as one more, but his behavior and commitment make him soon become a benchmark for his colleagues. He joins the guild activity.
In Colombia, at a meeting of his congregation, Paoli asks him not to return, he refuses and asks: “How dangerous can a priest armed with a broom be?”, and Pérez Esquivel in Ezeiza replies that he is not going to leave his companions . He continues to work after the disappearance of his companions from the corralón: Sanmartino and Goitía.
On June 14 he goes to work like every day when three men in suits get out of a white Ford Falcon and get him into the car without meeting any resistance on his part.
Immediately, the Latin American superior who was in Argentina presented himself before the ecclesial authorities at the Uruguayan consulate and filed a writ of habeas corpus. In 1978, his blood brother and his congregation, Jesús Silva, and Patricio Rice, filed complaints at the international level. Rice, of Irish origin, had also been kidnapped and saved by the management of his country before the Argentine government.
The Brothers of the Gospel, was the first congregation that presented itself as a complainant before the Argentine State for the disappearance of a member of its religious family.
Mauricio Silva was a man who looked for a place to live the Gospel, he found it in the spirituality of Foucauld and in the work of a sweeper and he was happy. He knew that his choice to work with the poorest, to commit himself to his life and his claims, caused a strong rejection in those responsible for the dictatorship, he knew what could happen to him, he had prepared himself.
Mauricio, with his testimony of life and martyrdom from his choice and commitment to walk alongside the poorest, was a seed that fell on fertile ground and bore fruit. The passage of time failed to erase his traces and today he is present in his fellow sweepers and collectors. As one of them said: “they are heirs to Mauricio’s fight, because when the gloves break, they ask for their replacement, while Mauricio and his companions fought to get them.”