“Difficult to classify,” is what many choose to call Enrique Ernesto Febbraro, born in Buenos Aires in 1924. Professor, philosopher, dentist, psychologist, musician and radio host who was declared an illustrious citizen for his professional and community life in Lomas de Zamora, south of the Buenos Aires suburbs.
In addition to being a founding member of different Rotary Club branches, Febbraro was one of those who was shocked when on July 20, 1969 he saw the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
As he himself recounted some time later, he interpreted that milestone as something that went beyond the scientific but spoke of a true unity of how humanity could achieve new goals. From that conviction arose a phrase that would become the motto of the celebration: “a town of friends is an unbeatable nation.”
A letter campaign
Before the Apollo 11 mission returned to Earth, Febbraro wrote a letter explaining his proposal, translated it into several languages and ordered around a thousand copies, which he sent to Rotary Club headquarters and institutions in nearly a hundred countries.
The response exceeded his expectations as he received between 700 and 800 endorsements from abroad, which prompted him to bring the idea of a date for “Friend’s Day” to the institutional level.
Febbraro toured government, religious and civil entities to obtain formal support for his initiative. In 1972, he registered the intellectual property of the celebration and transferred those rights to the Rotary Club of Lomas de Zamora, with the aim of facilitating its non-profit dissemination.
The official recognition
The institutional consolidation of Friends’ Day came in different stages. In 1979, the City of Buenos Aires made the date official through a decree that took up the motto proposed by Febbraro. Years later, on November 29, 1983, the Executive Branch of the province of Buenos Aires signed Decree 1826, which in its first article declared the city of Lomas de Zamora “provincial capital of friendship”, in recognition that the proposal had originated there “a reason for popular acceptance and rejoicing.”
Over the decades, the celebration exceeded the Argentine borders and is also celebrated in Uruguay, Brazil, Chile and Spain, among others. Although in 2011 the United Nations established July 30 as International Friendship Day, Febbraro’s proposal continues to win the hearts of friends of all ages.
For his work around the values of friendship and peace, Febbraro was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. He died on November 4, 2008, at the age of 84, leaving a legacy of joy and encounter to remember once again that what makes us human is sharing experiences with friends.
Source: Infobae
