América Scarfó

América Scarfó, the sweetheart of Severino Di Giovanni and sister of Paulino Scarfó (Paulino and Severino were both executed, after enduring torture, by the Uriburu regime in Argentina in February 1931) has died at the age of 93 on 26 August 2006. América was only 17 when she left home to live with Di Giovanni who was then in his 30s. Within months, Di Giovanni had been tracked down by police after a spree of bomb attacks on US and fascist targets. As Osvaldo Bayer, Di Giovanni’s biographer has put it: “Severino was an antifascist and he was convinced that the only counter to violence from above was violence from below.” Love letters exchanged between Severino and América were confiscated by the police. For years they formed a prize exhibit in the Police Museum in Buenos Aires. Many years later, América later went into partnership with a like-minded comrade to run the Americalee publishing house specializing in anarchist and libertarian materials. Thanks to lobbying by Osvaldo Bayer, during the Menem government (1989-1999) the love letters from Di Giovanni were returned to América Scarfó by the police authorities. Her remains were cremated and her ashes buried in the small garden adjoining the HQ of the Argentine Libertarian Federation (FLA) in the southern part of Buenos Aires.