Appreciating Past and Present

Since Río Gallegos has a lot to offer, we started by making a tour of its museums. Many of which surprised us with their unlimited resources. Opposite the main square, there lies an old construction where we visited the Eduardo Minnicelli Museum of Arts. It started as an educational project to contribute to artistic education in all forms. There are permanent and changing exhibits of paintings, engravings, sculptures and photographs and it has a projection room. The next step was to visit Gobernador Gregores Museum, built with local wood. It used to be the house of the lieutenant Juan Manuel Gregores during his administration when he was in charge of the national territory of Santa Cruz. In the four rooms, the furniture and items of his own house demonstrate his government work based on the radio communication system, public work and improvement of life quality. There are many photographs of the 1930s and 1940s.

In the old Barrio de la Gobernación we found the Naval Maritime Museum, which works in a house of the first settlement of the city in its current location. In its many rooms you can find a vast part of the history of Navy. One of the rooms is dedicated to Captain Edmundo Gramajo, in charge of American Transport upon arrival in Río Gallegos in October 1936, where 56 men first arrived. There is a frigate replica, the history of the evolution of the navy suits from the old uniforms to the current ones, together with vessel models and ship debris among some other attractions in the collection. Also, there is a reference to the Malvinas War and an excellent library of the Argentinian navy history. An old anchor dating from over a hundred years ago and a motorboat from the Crucero ARA 9 de Julio which helped rescue the crew from Villarino when it shipwrecked at Camarones Bay are displayed in the yard. When we visited the Padre Manuel Molina Regional Museum, we were taken aback by the diverse display of its rooms. The priest was a tireless researcher of the cultural, historical, anthropological and geological origins of the region. He was in charge of the classification of most of the items exhibited. If anything is worth a display, we saw fossil remains of the region, reproductions of dinosaur from the Mesozoic period, age-old rocks and minerals and Tehuelche furniture and fittings. This place is complemented by an Interactive Room of Science and others from Fine Arts, plus a technical library with more than five thousand books. It brings to mind the life of the area in different periods and it even has items of the current history of Rio Gallegos. We truly wanted to see the Museo Malvinas Argentinas since we knew that from the date it was first opened on April 2nd 1995, in premises given by the provincial government, it keeps the memory of the heroic deed of Malvinas alive, particularly for the Argentinian men who fought there. It is part of the XI Brigada Mecanizada and has three display rooms and huge yard which are shared with the Association of Veteran Center of the Malvinas War. Unfortunately it was not open to public when we tried to visit it. We had a general idea of the rich cultural and social heritage of Rio Gallegos and its influence area in the twinkling of an eye.