In the building of Hidalgo 140 street, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Caballito, the blinds of the eighth floor are still closed. Behind that impermeability remains intact the universe of one of the most lucid figures of Argentine culture. Beatriz Sarlo He died on December 17, 2024 at 81, and half a year later his material, symbolic and intellectual heritage is in full judicial dispute. Underlined books with surgical precision, manuscripts, jazz records, notes and even their Nini cat are today in a strip and loosen between their intimate circle, justice and a manager who presents himself as heir.
Melanio Alberto Meza Lópezgoalkeeper of the building where the writer lived during the last 30 years, he surprised everyone when he appeared in justice as heir to the department and the care of her Nini cat, for that, she presented a supposed written testament, according to him, of Sarlo’s handwriting. They are two letters, dated June 9 and August 2, 2024. The writer would expressly entrust her to “take care” of her department and her cat after her death.
The case fell into the Civil Court No. 91, in charge of the judge Carlos Hugo Goggi. The calligraphic expertise will be decisive to confirm the authenticity of those papers that, according to Melanio’s lawyer, Carlos Félix Somagliameet all legal requirements. But the scenario is more complex than it seems. The background question, which resonates among the books of Walter Benjamin, the first editions of the Library of Socialist Thought and the scored of the magazine Punto de Vista, is one: did Sarlo really want his legacy to end up in the hands of the goalkeeper of his building? “Leaving in charge” is the same as Legar?
David Oubiñaliterary critic, researcher and one of his closest collaborators, spoke with news and said: “The person in charge had a lot of relationship with who Sarlo’s couple, the film director was Rafael Filippellinot with her. But when Rafael died, the manager became closer. In fact, it was quite the last years, as many managers usually do with older people who live alone. I know he did the purchases when she was cold, she visited her and was there. “On the veracity of the two cards, one of his disciples, he clarifies:“ It could be his letter. I do not doubt that this document is true. If they permit it, they probably discover that it is Beatriz’s letter. I recognize her. In any case, it would be necessary to see in what context and conditions that text wrote. It would be necessary to see what “you are in charge of my apartment and my cat.” Being in charge is a task, a responsibility. It is not a gift. If I leave my department to someone, it is for him to come to pay the accounts and to water the plants, not to enjoy it. ”
What is at stake is not less. Sarlo did not leave children, parents, or brothers. His only forced heir would be her husband, the architect Alberto Sato Kotaniwith whom he married in 1966 but had been separated for 50 years. However, Sato, who lives in Chile, was excluded from the succession due to the long time of the separation in the first instance by the judge, in a ruling that the Chamber must now review. If its exclusion is maintained and Meza’s will is not validated, Sarlo’s department and assets could end in the hands of the Buenos Aires state.
Meanwhile, those who shared Sarlo’s intellectual and affective life in their last years observe the process with anguish. Your closest friends: Adrián Gorelik, David Oubiña himself, Adriana Liente, Hugo Siazetti, Sylvia Saítta and Ada Solarithey issued a public letter demanding the reinstatement of Sato as heir and alerting about the risk that the Sarlo archive is exposed to abandonment or undue use. They denounced, even that part of their disco would have been offered for sale in a leaflet of Buenos Aires. “We are concerned that, having been separated by the legitimate heir, there is no control over the department and its contents of an incalculable cultural value,” they wrote.
Legal Framework
From the legal point of view, the figure of the Olograph Testament is perfectly valid in Argentina from the reform of the Civil Code in 2015. “It has to have a date, place, signing and being written entirely of the testator,” explains news the lawyer specialist in Successions in Successions María Laura Lazzarahead of Advocating families. And he adds: “The husband would be forced heir, but as they were in fact separated, it can be excluded (as it happened) by the reform of the 2015 code. Thus, those who are created with the right to request that inheritance, begin the succession and the Olographer testament goes through that path.” With great tour in complex resolution, Lazzara He warns: “It also does not reach the document, the calligraphic experts must pass and check with other elements if that was effectively the will of the person, in this case, Sarlo. In the texts I saw, it is not entirely clear that she wanted to transfer the domain of the department to Meza. Rather it seems that she asked her to take care of him.”
In parallel to the judicial process, it beats another discussion about Sarlo’s intellectual legacy. Where your file, your library, your annotations and drafts should be protected. Before he died, the essayist expressly requested that this material went to the Cedinci (Documentation and research center of the leftist culture), and his friends fulfilled that will. But there are still many key pieces in the department of Hidalgo. On the subject, Oubiña returns: “The department serves for morbidity. There is talk of her husband Alberto Satowho in recent years was his great friend, and the manager, but what worries what will happen if someone wants to publish, translate or reissue a text of Beatriz Sarlo. The goalkeeper is not heir to his copyright. If the judge gives him the department, he does not guarantee the preservation of the legacy. Sylvia Saíttathe real executor should administer those goods. Nobody wants to make money with the department. All we want is to guarantee your legacy. ”
Asked about the popular rejection of the Olographer testament, the lawyer and professor of the UBA, Lorena Inés Wutzkeclarifies: “Third parties, creditors and even forced heirs may appear, but no one can oppose the Olograph Testament if their truth is proven. Always in these cases it is tried to challenge or affect it to some fraudulent act but the experts certify their validity with one hundred percent of accuracy. If the result gave that Sarlo has no heirs, all its heritage would pass to the hands of the State.”
Sarlo was an uncomfortable, acute, capable of bothering both right and left. His essays on literature, politics and media marked an era. Point of view, professor in universities in the world, a philositist columnist and power analyst, the truth is that she never sought heirs but interlocutors.
