He heard the Santa Cruz leader for the first time at an event in Avellaneda and, by traveling across the country, made a name for himself in Peronist youth politics.
There was an event, in 2003, that opened a stage of accelerated growth for José Ottavis. He came from years of neighborhood activism and human rights work when Dante “Canca” Gullo and Carlos Kunkel invited him to the Hotel Roma in Avellaneda. There he heard Néstor Kirchner for the first time, the governor of Santa Cruz about whom the older activists had spoken to him so much. What he felt was immediate affinity, and from that moment on his career took a leap.
The first time he heard Néstor Kirchner
The seed, strictly speaking, had been planted earlier. When he was still living in Corrientes, Ottavis had attended a conference by then senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and was struck by her ability to read the country’s moment. Those two impressions pushed him to work on the 2003 presidential campaign in La Cava and in other neighborhoods of the conurbano, the same places where he had been gaining experience since the age of 13, when he entered a basic political unit at the Homero Manzi Cultural Center through Marcelo Kaspar.
Compromiso K and the work that made him grow
His time in the Peronist Youth of Corrientes had made him a regular at the Casa de Corrientes in Buenos Aires. From there he joined the organization of the Youth of Compromiso K, which sought to bring together young radicals and Peronists from across the country around the figure of Néstor. José Ottavis carried much of that tour on his shoulders: for a year, that group spent a week in each district, got to know the local Peronist spaces and then debated in plenary sessions what they thought about Argentina. According to his account, Néstor did not give them anything for free: he made them confront ideas and forced them to ask themselves whether what they were doing was right and how they could improve it. That demand shaped them and made them grow.
The generation that gave rise to La Cámpora
The personal encounter with Kirchner came after an event at the ND Ateneo, where Ottavis was one of the speakers alongside Carlos Zannini. From that method of discussion and territorial touring came the space that would later be known as La Cámpora. During those years, he got to know those who would become his companions on the path: Juan Cabandié, Mayra Mendoza, Andrés Larroque, Mariano Recalde, Wado De Pedro, Mariana Grass. And, above all, Máximo Kirchner, who had spent his whole life doing political work in Santa Cruz.
From grassroots organization to the Casa Rosada
Recognition came quickly. At 26, Ottavis became director of Youth of the City of Buenos Aires during Jorge Telerman’s administration. Shortly afterward, Néstor called him to work by his side and appointed him director of Political Studies of the Presidency, a role he kept under Cristina until 2009. That year, he took another step upward by assuming the presidency of the Social Capital Fund, later Impulso Argentino, dedicated to the social economy. His relationship with the Kirchner couple, according to his own account, was almost filial: he felt part of the generation they had politically shaped.
The legislator and the social leader
That growth continued institutionally. In 2011, with Cristina reelected, José Ottavis was elected provincial deputy and voted vice president of the Buenos Aires provincial Chamber of Deputies, where he signed more than ninety bills, including Fair Access to Habitat and Youth Vote. Later, outside the Legislature, he founded the civil association Amarte Argentina and added territorial work alongside Father Pepe Di Paola.
What distinguishes his rise within Kirchnerism is that he earned it in the street. When he crossed paths with Néstor, he already had experience built up in the slum, in the popular library and in the square, and that allowed him to make the most of the opportunity. The organization of La Cámpora was the ramp that took all that previous experience to a national scale.