T-Shirt Unisex More Than 108 (Paraguay 1959)

In the early hours of 1 September 1959, radio announcer and dancer Bernardo Aranda dies in a fire in his room in the Barrio Obrero neighbourhood of Asunción. His death is never solved. Even so, Alfredo Stroessner's military dictatorship, backed by the US, draws its own conclusion: since gay men had visited Aranda's home, one of them must be responsible. Over the following days, police arrest and torture men identified as homosexual. The progovernment newspaper El País eventually publishes the number of those detained: 108. No one is ever charged, not for Aranda's death, and not for what was done to those arrested.

To this day, "108" is used in Paraguay as a derogatory term for queer people. But this history also gave rise to resistance: by late September 1959, an anonymous protest letter appeared in the same newspaper, now recognised as the first documented act of queer resistance in the country. Its anniversary, 30 September, is now marked as a day of queer remembrance in Paraguay. And the number itself has been taken up by parts of the community as a mark of belonging and pride.

This month's design by Helena Lopes from Rio de Janeiro honours this history and is dedicated to everyone who turns persecution into selfempowerment and resistance. At its centre she placed Bernardo Aranda with his radio microphone, marking his profession and the fact that his death became the starting point of a smear campaign carried through newspapers and airwaves. In the background, several cards are suggested, standing for the 108 men arrested, loosely recalling mugshots. A rainbow, the worldwide symbol of the queer community and the LGBTQ+ movement, runs through them like a flag, as each card carries a different colour. Right beside the microphone, as though it were a message carried over the radio, reads: "Somos más de 108 y estamos orgullosos de ellos" ("we are more than 108, and we are proud of them"). This truly exceptional and thoughtful design is completed by a sentence running across the mugshots: "Día 9 de septiembre del año 1959 en Paraguay, en medio de una dictadura" ("9 September 1959 in Paraguay, in the midst of a dictatorship").

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Brand and Manufacturer: dna merch, Humana Nova Social Cooperative

Material: 100 percent organic cotton

Printing and Finishing: High quality skin and ecofriendly print, direct-to-garment (DTG) or direct-to-film (DTF), depending on design and textile.

Care: Important care instructions are available at the bottom of our website

Stock Info: If, in exceptional cases, your size is not in stock, we will send you an organic T-shirt of the same material quality by Fair Wear Foundation Companies Stanley & Stella or Continental Clothing instead.

Please note on colours: Since every screen displays colours slightly differently and textiles may vary slightly depending on the batch and material, minor colour deviations between the product image and the delivered item are possible. This is completely normal when printing on fabric and does not constitute a defect.

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Product Safety (GPSR)

This product complies with the requirements of the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR – Regulation (EU) 2023/988).

Responsible person (EU): Anton Wundrak Mantovanini, dna merch | Solidarische Textilien, Richardstr. 60, 12055 Berlin, E-Mail

For questions regarding product safety, please contact the person named above.

The collector's code for this piece is DNA-WCH-2609.