Mr. Miguel Carlos Contreras (R) and a picture of Uncle Ho (Photo: baotintuc.vn)
He was Miguel Contreras, born in 1898, a communist leader of the first generation in Argentina and getting acquainted with Uncle Ho when he was young. He actively participated in the struggle movement of the working class and the poor in society against oppression of dictatorships, for social justice.
According to his son, Mr. Miguel Carlos Contreras, he and many of his comrades founded the Communist Party of Argentine, the earliest communist organization founded in Latin America (January 6th, 1918). In 1929, Mr. Miguel Contreras was elected as the First Secretary of the Federation of Latin American Unions, an organization founded in Uruguay, with the goal of uniting all Latin American worker movements.
Undergoing imprisonment and torture, he was determined to pursue revolutionary and communist ideals for social equality. During his travels to other countries to learn about revolutionary movements in the world, Mr. Contreras had the opportunity to get acquainted with many revolutionary leaders. And in a visit to Russia, he first met Uncle Ho in the -30 degrees Celsius weather during their attendance at the funeral for Lenin in early 1924.
Standing in the snow for too long without gloves, Nguyen Ai Quoc's hands were almost frozen. Mr. Contreras immediately handed over his gloves to a new acquaintance and went back to where Nguyen Ai Quoc was staying. Contreras was surprised because it was the room he had been arranged by the organizers during his time in the Soviet Union.
The three months spent together after that was a time when the two leaders had the opportunity to share about revolutionary ideals, concerns and difficulties on how to promote the revolutionary movement in their homeland. After that, Mr. Contreras also had the opportunity to meet Uncle Ho twice, in 1938 and 1960 in Moscow, when they attended international communist movements' conferences.
In an interview in "La Voz del Interior" (Local Voice) in early September 1969 after news of Uncle Ho's death, Mr. Contreras said he was always proud of being the first Argentinean and perhaps the only Argentinean directly meeting and sharing ideals with the legendary leader of the Vietnamese heroic nation.
He also expressed his admiration for President Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary spirit, erudition, and desire for national independence, affirming that during his time with Uncle Ho in Moscow, he learned a lot from his precious qualities, helping him strengthen his determination to pursue communist revolutionary ideals during his later years of struggle./.