Julio Carreras

Julio Carreras (h) (born August 19, 1949) is an Argentine author of 12 books and former guerrilla fighter.

Born in San Pedro de Guasayán, Santiago del Estero, he studied piano, guitar and the plastic arts from the age of 4 till 14, when he began playing the electric guitar in rock bands.

In 1972 he founded the artists' movement SER, which brought about the Primer Recital de Rock Nacional del Noroeste Argentino (July 1, 1972). His fiancée, Clara Ledesma Medina, was the core of this important movement. With this group, they published a magazine and with their many young adherents they turned to literacy work in poor neighborhoods.

January 6, 1973 Clara died. The young writer, on the verge of suicide, went to Córdoba where he began to work as a journalist for the magazines ''Posición'', ''Patria Nueva'', and as correspondent for the daily ''El Mundo'' of Buenos Aires. With his new fiancée, he became a militant in the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP, "People's Revolutionary Army, associated with the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores — PRT, "Workers' Revolutionary Party") in 1972.

At this time he was already a fugitive from the police, after an assault on the military barracks of Villa María. That same year Julio married Gloria Gallegos, also militant of PRT-ERP. In August 1975 his first daughter Anahí was born. At about this time, the writer became political leader of the PRT and military leader of the ERP in the zone Este de Córdoba (Department of San Justo). In January 1976 he fell into the hands of the police; his wife was also detained while looking for a lawyer.

During this period the Argentine government was undertaking the systematic massacre of guerrillas, unionists, university leaders, and political militants known as the Dirty War. Carreras and his wife were miraculously saved by having been arrested just before the military coup, but were brutally tortured. They also survived eight months of internment in a concentration camp.

In 1981 Gloria was freed; Carreras was freed in 1982. Shortly afterwards he was summoned by the bishopric of Mailín to paint 31 gigantic murals in a sanctuary constructed in the middle of the desert. This commission gave him the money to buy his first home.

Because of the torture and detention he suffered under the military dictatorship in Argentina, was compensated in 1994 by an opinion of the International Tribunal in The Hague.

Carreras worked as director of the cultural section of the daily ''El Liberal'' in Santiago del Estero, and contributed pieces to several magazines in Argentina and abroad.

Julio Carreras (h) also founded the Asociación de Periodistas de Internet (2000). He is a member of the Grupo de Reflexión Rural (GRR) and of INIsmo (an international ''avant-garde'' artistic current founded in Paris in 1980. Some of his principal books are: ''El Jinete Oscuro'', ''Abelardo'', ''El Malamor'', ''cueRtos'', ''Ciclo de Anton Tapia'', ''Vidas de Cain'', ''El misterio del mal'', ''Bertozzi'', ''Fulgor de los damascos'', ''Un largo adiós''. Provided by Wikipedia