The famous graphic reporter, Manuel H Rodriguez, told the story of the facts of the Bogotazo to Official Bogota Webpage.
"I was travelling in a street car and listening to the news without knowing how or why I got down to take pictures, pushed by nothing more than my instinct," affirmed Manuel Rodriguez or simple "Manuel H", as he remembered the day of the murder of political leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.
He began a two day trip on a historical registry that with the passing of the years has turned into a vital part of the memory of the country. The first photograph was taken a few meters from where Gaitan died on 14 ST and 7th AV in front of the Berrio hardware store. The angry mob broke the fence of the establishment and armed themselves with bricks and machetes. Even though they followed him to take his camera someone that recognized him from bullfights yelled out that he knew him and he was safe.
A few meters from the place, was the Granada drugstore. As he got near he captured the moment when the mob was hitting and dragging Roa Sierra, the killer of Gaitan, by the tie, towards the Bolivar Plaza.
Even though he saw the people and the violent mood, Manuel H was not afraid. He became an observer of the moment sure that what he was doing was fundamental, without knowing why or for who.
"I think that people exploded and expressed their accumulated resentment upon the death of the Liberals, poverty and power control; in addition, the people had great sympathy for doctor Gaitan and his death was the drop that filled the hat and that generated the wrath of the people," explained Manuel H.
Many spectators joined the response to the events of April 9. At the moment the Pan-American Conference was taking place and days before Gaitan wrote a note to the president Mariano Ospina Perez titled Prayer for Peace, document that manifested his opposition to the genocide that the Gaitan movement was living. In addition, a month before this, on February 7, he had convoked the citizenship to participate in the March of Silence.
At first, these events were linked to Gaitan's death but people like Manuel H, that touched the skin of the events affirm that it had nothing to do with the circumstances that surrounded the death of the Liberal politician.
The following season was a cynical one where the body of Gaitan rested. He took a few pictures and went to Plaza Bolivar. There, the robberies and sackings continued as the number of deaths multiplied in the streets. Again, he was almost killed on the streets, when the bullets flew past him, but destiny confirmed that his time was not up.
At the end of the afternoon he ended his shift with a Picture of the electric train in flames.
"As I arrived home, my wife was very worried because a nurse had seen me at the clinic and told her. After my explanations, we began to work in the developing process," affirmed the photographer.
Fruit of his love for photography, in that time he already had an improvised lab in his room. He did however; lack practice and his nervousness of having witnessed the events did not permit him to do the best job in developing the photos.
The following day he took more film and went to register the destruction that the events left. Without knowing why, he decided to go to the cemetery. There he found a number of considerable victims. "There was a naked cadaver, with a bruised body and two ties, it was Roa Sierra. I ran into Felipe Gonzalez Toledo, journalist of the Espectador, that asked me for the picture I took of Gaitan's murderer and that was when I was born as a photographer," stated Manuel H.
Alejandra Giraldo Salazar
Official Bogota Webpage
Esta historia ha sido leida: 80 veces
