This Saturday, May 4, was the 55th anniversary of Mario Rodriguez Cobos’ (or Silo) speech in the Argentinean town of Punta de Vacas, very close to the Aconcagua, in the middle of the Andes Mountains.
In 1969, Silo chose this inhospitable place to give his speech “On the Healing of Suffering” because the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina at that time told him to “go and talk to the stones”. And so he did. In Chile and Argentina the rumor spread that something was going to happen in those places, and many young people came to wait for his words.
It was the beginning of the Humanist Movement, which over time has developed in different countries and nations, and has been expressed in different organizations (the Humanist Parties, Convergence of Cultures, Silo’s Message, the World Marches for Peace and Nonviolence, the Community for Human Development, the Pressenza news agency, etc.).
Today the Park of Reflection and Development Punta de Vacas is erected on the site. About 100 people, mostly Argentines and Chileans, attended and participated in a variety of activities, starting with the recording of the speech. Similar events were held in all the other Study and Development Parks around the world.
