Gilda Garnica (45) has a virtue that more than one should yearn for: in the middle of an interview with El Patagónico on the Costanera beach, people with the latest aquatic clothing come to greet her to others more humble who take advantage of the hot day to go with their children to cool off in the sea.
Everything is built. Gilda did it since she worked in the municipal vacation colonies in different neighborhoods where she recruited for the judoka hotbed, to which a girl named Oritia González joined, who would later move to Buenos Aires and be Paula Pareto’s sparring partner.
But Gilda’s path began long before she was born, in the bosom of a family that breathed judo.
MARCOS GARNICA, A PIONEER OF THE ACTIVITY
Gilda remembers her father with emotion. She summarizes the 13 years that she lived with him as follows: “My old man was one of those who started with judo, he always worked on it. I remember that Monday, Wednesday and Friday he went to Caleta Olivia to teach and came back (sometimes he added Pico Truncado and Río Gallegos). He slept a mini-nap with Glenis (the youngest of the Garnica) who was a baby on his chest and from there he started teaching at school 155 or at Municipal 1. When he could he swam and acted as a lifeguard when the service did not exist , as well as participating in the triathlons of that time of the 80s”, he recalls.
Marcos’ life was spent between judo and his family. In order to complement all his roles, he chose to travel with the whole family when the sport invited him to add more kilometers to have a presence in provincial and national tournaments. “We put everything in the car and started the trip; actually I already did judo since I was 6, like my sister. So we were going to leave too.
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Cyprus ”.
On October 12, 1990, the Garnica family traveled in their Peugeot to Viedma, where Gilda had to defend the title of national champion obtained a year earlier in Paraná.
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Passing the San Antonio Oeste railroad tracks, the car suffered a malfunction and ended its journey head-on against a truck. From that moment, Gilda was left without a father, mother and maternal grandmother. Days later she would also lose her older sister.
In an instant, a 13-year-old girl and her little sister were left without their nuclear family.
“I always thought so; How did I get through all of this? Because I also lost my maternal grandmother who ‘was the most’ for me. And I think the fact that I had a little sister that I couldn’t give up on was what made me stronger. And later in life that was transferred to my daughters; they are the reason why one keeps going”, she stresses.
SHUFFLE AND DEAL AGAIN
Gilda took a year to return to judo. Since the accident there have been many changes, such as moving from his childhood neighborhood (313 Dwellings) to living for 4 years under the guardianship of his paternal grandparents. And then with her uncles on her mother’s side, one of them “Mustache” Córdoba, related to the world of rugby.
“When I returned to judo it was hand in hand with Roberto Grupallo, who had already established himself in the city and gave continuity to the sport, later joined by Alejandro Arocena who came from Buenos Aires and whose father was one of the founders of the Federation. . When I graduated from 723 (in a very good stage under the direction of “Lali” Anconetani) I studied a year as a university programmer analyst at the university, but I realized that it was not my thing. I liked (and likes) being with groups of people and in direct contact with them”.
By then, Gilda had found a taste for teaching judo. Miguel Blanco had given her her space in Municipal 1 – where the judo room bears the name of her father – and it was Blanco’s wife (Liliana Colla) who received her as a student of the Physical Education Teacher Training.
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“In judo I stopped competing at 20. First because doing weights I injured a vertebra. And then in the last competition I participated in, they put me in a chokehold and I passed out for a few seconds. I remember that I woke up and wanted to continue, while ‘Pelado’ (Roberto Grupallo) who was my coach was crazy and wanted to enter the tatami”.
Long before his father -without being a teacher- he already had recognition as such. To such an extent that he dictated judo workshops to future physical education teachers among whom he graduated –for example- Sandra Varela, the benchmark for zumba and other rhythms.
Gilda, at the same time that she was a mother and a judo ‘teacher’, was studying to be a teacher. First-year anatomy and her change in study plan lengthened her career. But Garnica, far from being intimidated, was received.
HOLIDAY COLONIES, A POLICY OF INCLUSION
For decades, municipal camps have been free –not in all cities this is the case- and they are a meeting point for thousands of kids who, in addition to playing, acquire healthy habits and get to know their city better.
As a teacher student, Gilda in those spaces (first in the Ciudadela neighborhood and then in others) reaffirmed that being a teacher and providing equal opportunities was her thing.
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There she built that permanent greeting from different social strata when they see her on the local waterfront or cross her on the street. “With the neighborhoods I got to know all the neighborhoods and it helped me to bring kids closer to judo. Oritia (González) was one of them. After the colonies, many boys signed up for judo at Municipal 1. Even at the time of the Work plans, the women went to 1 and took the children to practice. It was through judo that we were able to participate in different tournaments and travel around the country; even with a delegation we went to Italy with all expenses paid by a professor from there who visited us on one occasion”, she commented.
THE ABILITY TO OVERCOME TRAUMA
Resilience means the ability of a person to overcome traumatic circumstances such as the death of a loved one, an accident, etc. Some argue that this enhances happiness. In Gilda’s case, the accident was a turning point, but far from falling apart, she reconfigured herself to offer herself to others.
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Not only as a gym teacher, judo teacher, community teacher. She but also swimming for people with disabilities. Where there is a space to value people, there Gilda seeks to play her role. And she spreads it and she lives it with the passion that her father transmitted to her.
That is why he went for more and a few years ago he started the lifeguard course. It was not easy for her not being able to finish 100 meters in 1’20 ”, which resulted in a year of intense training to perform successfully again and be a sentinel of the sea.
If the saying goes that “student beats the teacher”, Gilda did it with flying colors, but her daughter Fiorella went further, competing through judo throughout Europe. Graduated as a psychologist at the University of Buenos Aires, she achieved notable merits at a national and international level, obtaining gold at the Pan American level and bronze at the Judo World Cup, competing in countries in America, Europe and Asia.
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But, without a doubt, Gilda’s main struggle was her overcoming by recovering from such a hard fall, to which she was subjected as a great challenge of fate. They are examples that show us that when a person wants to live and recover from the worst situation, he can achieve it”, described Pablo Saúl Cosentino (6th dan of Judo UPJ) on social media.
For Gilda; or “Gil” as the people who come to the waterfront call her, or “la tía” as her lifeguard colleagues call her, it’s about always being up to the task. Physically and mentally. In this way, one can better serve the other; value him and encourage him not to lower his arms. That is the path you are currently on.
