Soccer Saves Argentinian-Israeli Grandmother from 10/7 Hamas Massacre: Meet Esther Cunio

For International Women’s Day, Fuente Latina sent the press a video about a 90-year-old Israeli-Argentinean grandmother crediting soccer legend Lionel Messi with her survival on 10/7.

Our interview with Esther Cunio went viral in Spanish, Hebrew, and English.

Fuente Latina teamed up with a non-Jewish Latino nonprofit, the Immigrant Archive Project (IAP), to produce the first-ever film about 10/7 Latino-Israeli hostages and survivors in Spanish, Voces del 7 de Octubre - Latino Stories of Survival.

Thousands of outlets published our clip with accompanying storyline. It pushed calls to release innocent Israeli hostages, including 2 of Esther’s grandchildren, to the top of global news. 

Infobae, the #1 Spanish-language news portal in the world, published the story in a full-length article and video on their site. It featured in the Jerusalem Post, the Daily Mail, and elsewhere. Tweets about Esther gained millions of views on X in just a few hours.

The IAP team of filmmakers, guided by Fuente Latina, spent 14 days on the ground in Israel filming 40 survivor testimonies in Spanish.

One of those voices is that of Esther Cunio.

Images of the 90-year-old woman forced to cradle a weapon and pose with her masked Palestinian attacker went viral after 10/7. Esther’s story was unknown before we interviewed her for the film in Spanish.

Esther explains on camera for the first time how armed Palestinians entered her home amid the carnage on Oct. 7. They demanded she tell them where her family was, but Esther remained calm and changed the topic to soccer. She explained how she is Argentinian, just like the soccer star Messi. One of the gunmen said he liked Messi and then left her alone after staging the photo. Her witness account is just one of many in the documentary that resonates with millions of Latinos worldwide. 

The upcoming film project "Voces del 7 de Octubre - Latino Stories of Survival" brings to light an extraordinary tale of resilience and survival. At the center of this gripping narrative is Esther Cunio, a 90-year-old Argentinian grandmother living near the Gaza border in Kibbutz Nir Oz grandmother whose life took an unexpected turn on October 7th. That day, she found herself amid a harrowing situation, facing the imminent threat of danger from an unexpected source: Hamas.

What could have been a dire encounter transformed into an unlikely bond, all thanks to one common language: soccer. As Esther recounts her experience, it becomes clear that it was her passion for the sport, and particularly her admiration for Argentine football legend Lionel Messi, that catalyzed an extraordinary exchange.

To learn more about Esther's story visit:

https://givebutter.com/Oct7