“A clean face” was shown yesterday Maximiliano Altavista / sebastián casali
Solidarity Batman from La Plata put on the “superhero” suit for the last time. Yesterday the mystery of the man from La Plata was revealed who for 10 years was in charge of giving life to the character to do hundreds of works at the Children’s Hospital and at the Alejandro Korn de Melchor Romero. This is Maximiliano Altavista, a 52-year-old teacher who lives in Barrio Aeropuerto, who is married and the father of teenage triplets. “Now that I have handed over the suit to my successor, I wanted to show myself with a clean face in gratitude for the love and respect that those who participated in the works had for me throughout this time,” he told EL DIA, between liberated and nostalgic.
As he said more than once dressed as Batman, Maximiliano started his great crusade on April 2, 2013. He had previously requested permission from the nuns of the Sor Ludovica Hospital to visit hospitalized patients impersonating the superhero. The idea was to give them colored pencils and notebooks so that they could draw during the long hours of convalescence. Like hundreds of people from La Plata that day, he was surprised by the flood and came out with water up to his waist.
On each weekly visit, reality knocked him out with children who couldn’t see the old televisions in the living rooms, parents sleeping on the floors, and moldy pavilions. This is how campaigns arose that resulted in the donation of fifty state-of-the-art televisions, the provision of comfortable armchairs for families, complete rooms that were arranged and decorated with colorful characters to enliven the children’s stay. And they even built a mini Gotham city in one of the courtyards.
But Maxi knew that her life inside the suit had an expiration date. “There is a lot of wear and tear, physical and psychological, there were days when I would arrive broken at my house directly to hug my children, then without losing sensitivity I learned to make myself an armor to be able to move on,” confessed the solidarity from La Plata.
In these years thousands of anecdotes arose around the character, but Maximiliano always managed to preserve his identity. “Sometimes I went without the suit to paint rooms at the Children’s Hospital and when a nurse heard me, she told me that I was Batman, then she would immediately change her voice to mislead her because for me it was a dagger to be discovered,” he said.
In this last stage in which he dedicated himself to thanking all his Robins, he stopped with particular affection to mention the respect of his friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, who, although they knew that he was the protagonist of the project, never did. They betrayed neither on the networks, nor anywhere.
“My parents once let go of saying ‘I am the mother or father of Batman’, but luckily it never came out, everyone who knew kept Batman’s magic,” added Maximiliano.
On other occasions the Batmobile gave him away, but he always carried with him a photo that he took with his brother dressed as Batman to show it and say that he was only the driver of the superhero.
Now, with the peace of mind of having fulfilled a noble mission, Maximiliano assured that next April 2 at 5:00 p.m. there will be a mass in gratitude for the closing stage and the presentation in the Caacupé Church – 4 and 84. society of the new Batman that he anticipates will follow his same work.
