We publish here the words pronounced by the humanist Deputy Tomás Hirsch on the occasion of the inauguration of the room in the National Congress that bears the name of Laura Rodríguez Riccomini:
“Dear friends.
Thank you for being here today. A special greeting to Dario, Laura’s husband and life partner, to her son Simón, today a great publisher and creator of the wonderful Furia del Libro, to Ana L’Homme, Dario’s current partner, and to Laura’s brother Edgardo Rodríguez and his son.
To name a room after Laura Rodríguez was a purpose we set ourselves since we arrived at this Congress 5 years ago. It was a long task to find the room that today will bear her name and I want to start by thanking the Speaker of the House Vlado Mirosevic and the Secretary General Miguel Landeros for making this dream come true.
If Laura’s strong idea was “Facing the people and with her back to Parliament”, it seemed important to us that her presence, even if it was in the name of a chamber, should serve as an inspiration for future generations of legislators. “Facing the people” was the idea that guided Laura’s social and political work; facing the people and not with her back turned, as a gesture of appreciation, recognition and commitment to the neglected and discriminated against in our society.
Laura promoted active non-violence as a form of social organisation and political struggle. She did not believe in paternalism. She believed in parity and practised it every day, trusting in people’s capacity to organise themselves and transform their reality.
Laura showed that coherence is a way of life: what one says in public corresponds to what one says and does in one’s personal life, without double standards or hypocrisy. One only has to look at the countless scandals of recent years in various institutions to see how much we need such consistency today.
Laura confronted the moral and ethical limitations of her time. She fought to end the odious stigma of so-called natural or illegitimate children, giving all children equal rights and legitimacy. She defended the right to abortion, promoting a debate that until those days was a taboo subject, censored by the media. She promoted the law on divorce, seeking to leave behind the hypocrisy of annulments. She worked for the work rights of women workers in private homes. She understood the need to provide dignified care for people living with HIV and her commitment gave rise to the Laura Rodriguez Foundation, which for years was almost the only way for those living with the virus to access the medicines needed to save their lives. She raised the need to establish a horizontal and open dialogue with our indigenous peoples, meeting with them in their communities and welcoming them to this Congress.
All this and much more, in just 2 years of activity in this Congress.
Before her death on 18 July 1992, while she was fighting an incurable cancer, Laura opened a profound reflection on death, a vetoed subject in our society. With sincerity and courage, she showed us that it was possible to look at death in order to find in it the transcendent character of life.
This metal and wood plaque is significant, but much more important is to remember the work, the actions of Laura Rodríguez. Let us hope that every time we cross this door we connect with her purpose of humanising Chile and why not, also humanise a little this Congress to continue building that fairer and more humane Chile that we all dream of.
Thank you very much.
