From the fresco of the companions of the garden to the thousand decals: stories behind the tributes to Lucio Dupuy at La Pampa

Although the trial for the crime Lucio Dupuy concluded with life sentences for the child’s mother Madeleine Esposito Valenti there Abigail Peace, in Santa Rosa the memories and requests for Justice persist. And they are countless. The case moved the community and scarred the pampas capital, which was filled with references to it with posters, graffiti and decals all over the city. Also with a iconic wall.

This is one of the first tributes to the little one. It was painted three weeks after the murder on a brick wall on the corner of Allan Kardec and Tierno, four blocks from the house where Lucio lived, in the Colonia Escalante neighborhood. The work was created by the muralist Juan Manuel Gimenez an initiative of the parents of kindergarten classmates from school 27 that the victim attended.

in dialogue with GlobeLiveMedia, the artist told how the initiative was born: “For La Pampa it was a very difficult case, it affected all of us in a significant way. That day (the day after the crime) I made a painting of Lucio on a 1 meter by 1 meter piece of wood and uploaded it to the networks. We see that it reached the parents of the kindergarten and they contacted me through a friend: in the midst of pain and anguish, they wanted to honor him with a mural”.

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Giménez has been a muralist since 1998 and throughout his career he has produced paintings related to events with a strong social impact, such as the Facundo Astudillo Castro. “For me it’s a necessity and an outletAt no time was it a job. Personally, I think that art should be able to question us as a society, that it is a tool for transformation and I always try to give a message in this kind of painting”, he explained. He felt the same with the Lucio case. So he accepted the offer.

The first step was to find a place. Among the parents in the garden, a few proposals arose: in front of the house of relatives of one of the culprits or near the children’s educational institution. Giménez disagreed with this and, as he works in a local soup kitchen, he searched alongside him until he came across a family that has abandoned its wall.

At that time, I already had the drawing of the work ready, illustrated with one of the last pictures of Lucio. “My friend told me an anecdote according to which the boy had gone to play at home and there he took a picture of him while he was eating,” recalls the author. The mural was painted in two days: “I did it very early in the morning because those were times when we were coming out of the pandemic. I would go at 6 a.m. and cut at 10 a.m. because people were closing in and trying to avoid the crowds “.

The result was a moving image in which Lucio is accompanied to heaven by flying butterflies who represent “all the boys we’ve lost to violence,” Giménez said. This with the dedication of his companions.

At the time the mural was designed, other initiatives sprang up in the Pampean capital to remember Lucio and demand justice. One was promoted by sensei and judo teacher Luis Rollanwho, together with a group of neighbors, decided to make a solidarity collection to make stickers that we see today on walls, lampposts, bars, vehicles.

The stickers have the figure of a child’s face in black and white, accompanied by two legends: “Justice for Lucio Abel Dupuy” there “We are all Lucio”. “We did it to accompany Lucio’s grandfather and father, so that the case does not go unpunished and people remember it every time they see a sticker,” Roldán explained to GlobeLiveMedia.

The neighbors contacted a printing company that produced thousand decals at cost price. “People came to help us anonymously,” said the judo teacher, mentioning that he had first received some criticism: “Some thought we were going to take advantage of it and quite the contrary. Time has proven the reality . Today the plot is scattered throughout Argentina. He even went abroad, he even came to the United States.

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“It was a minimal contribution that filled our hearts, in addition to accompanying the marches that took place,” said Roldán, who before ending the interview asked that “the pike law so that it doesn’t happen again.”

This bill created around this cause aims to prevent child abuse, aims to raise awareness and provides sanctions against officials. It already benefits from a half-sanction to the deputies and will soon be dealt with in the Senate.

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