Isidro Casanova was the home for this city that brought together boys and girls of all ages who lost their parents due to leprosy. For many of them, it gradually transformed into a rehabilitation center for young people with addiction problems.
Giuliana Salmonte Siciliano
Alejandro Enrique, journalist and historian, and Yanina Delfino and Cinthia Rueda, two research teachers, came together to make a documentary that tells the story of this children’s colony. It will premiere next Saturday, March 15th, at 2:00 PM at the Isidro Casanova Rotary Public Library, located at Sarrachaga 6198 and Madrid Street. The entire local community is welcome to attend, as admission is free.
“Leprosy was a very serious problem; it had almost no treatment, was contagious, and was highly stigmatized. That’s why they came up with the idea in Argentina, a country where there was no Ministry of Health and where the oligarchy ruled, to isolate people on the Island of Cerrito, to give them a treatment and see what new treatment for leprosy was found,” the journalist began to explain what the documentary will be about.
This investigation began in 2013, but it took time to complete because it was underfunded and the pandemic halted everything. However, Alejandro Enrique continued his work alongside two researchers, and they finally managed to finish it. The documentary about the Mi Esperanza Children’s Colony aims to tell a bit of its history and what it has become today.
The historian emphasized that the main problem at the time, due to this disease, was that since adults were isolated in one place, their children were left wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, and this worried a segment of society. That’s where the Ladies of Benevolence came in and created a Leprosy Patients’ Trust to resolve issues, given the lack of a Ministry of Health.
Alejandro stated: “These women pooled resources and created the Baldomero Sommer Hospital in General Rodríguez, where direct treatment was available because the best dermatologists who had studied abroad were there. At that moment, the problem arose: ‘Well, what do we do with the kids?’ And they came up with the idea of building a children’s city and a colony to house the children until they turned 18.”
The Isidro Casanova Children’s Colony
Without much anticipation, the journalist stated that the State donated 35 hectares to the Ladies of Benevolence in the west of the Province of Buenos Aires, and they saw the possibility of building it there, since building a chapel in a town where there was nothing was a very important event. Little by little, the establishment grew thanks to contributions from the government of the time.
“In the early 1990s, this colony changed because leprosy began to be treated differently, and isolation wasn’t necessary, so children were no longer separated from their parents. So it stopped being a place for those children and became a shelter for orphans and homeless children,” Enrique stated when asked about this change in the facility’s use.
The Current Situation of My Hope Children’s City
Since 2000, the colony has no longer been located in Isidro Casanova, nor is it used as such. At that time, buildings were built, and today it is in the hands of the Bishopric of San Justo, in the church, which is run by Father Charly. The historian, who was filming for the documentary until recently, stated that “the entire place was restored, the school is very beautiful, and almost all the buildings have been recovered; only one remains, which was the old clinic.”
Currently, the facility has 20- and 30-year-olds undergoing rehabilitation for various addiction issues, and all the previously abandoned rooms are being used for various recreational activities aimed at social reintegration.
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