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sections to add to the existing article, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were a group of women who protested against the disappearance of their children, who were abducted and often killed by the military during the Dirty War (a period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1976 to 1983). The junta (military government) identified the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as "emotional terrorists" because they insisted on obtaining information about their missing children. The junta attempted to discredit them by claiming that these women had renounced their right to motherhood by being bad mothers or mothers of subversives. The military, in a patriarchal discourse that honored motherhood, tried to undermine the Mothers' legitimacy by associating them with subversion.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the desaparecidos, initially, and then determining the culprits of crimes against humanity to promote their trial and sentencing. The Mothers began demonstrating in the Plaza de Mayo, the public square located in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, in the city of Buenos Aires, on 30 April 1977, to petition for the alive reappearance of their disappeared children. Originally, they would remain there seated, but by declaring a state of emergency, police expelled them from the public square.

In September 1977, in order to provide themselves with an opportunity to share their stories with other Argentinians, the mothers decided to join the annual pilgrimage to Our Lady of Luján, located 30 miles outside Buenos Aires. In order to stand out among the crowds, the mothers decided to wear their children's nappies (diapers) as headscarves. Following the pilgrimage, the mothers decided to continue wearing these headscarves during their meetings and weekly demonstrations at the Plaza. On them, they embroidered the names of their children and wrote “Aparición con Vida” (Alive reappearance).

During the years of the Dirty War, the name used by the military junta in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 as a part of Operation Condor, military and security forces and right-wing death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A) hunted down political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism or the Montoneros guerrillero movement. The Mothers constantly opposed the de facto government and suffered persecution, including kidnappings and forced disappearances, most notably in the cases of founders Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino, María Ponce de Bianco, and French nun supporters Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet, perpetrated by a group led by Alfredo Astiz, a former commander, intelligence officer, and naval commando who served in the Argentine Navy during the military dictatorship. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, known for having found and identified the remains of Che Guevara, would later find their bodies to have been killed on a death flight and their bodies disposed of in the sea.

On the first days of December 1980, the first "March of Resistance" was held, consisting of marching around the public square for 24 hours. Despite democracy being re-established in the 1983 general election, the movement continued to hold marches and demonstrations, demanding sentences for the military personnel that participated in the government that overthrew Isabel Perón in the 1976 coup d'état. This would eventually culminate in the Trial of the Juntas of 1985.

They have received widespread support and recognition from many international organizations, including being the first organization laureated by the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and helping several human rights groups throughout their history. The 1980 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was an active supporter of the association, for which he was the subject of harassment by the dictatorship.

Since 1986 the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been divided into two factions, the majority group "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association" (presided by Hebe de Bonafini) and "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line". Ceremonially, every Thursday at 3:30 p.m the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, led by Hebe de Bonafini, march around the May Pyramid at the central hub of the Plaza de Mayo, and at 4:00 p.m they give speeches from the Equestrian monument to General Manuel Belgrano, where they opine over the current national and global situation.

Purpose

Women had organized to gather, holding a vigil, while also trying to learn what had happened to their adult children during the 1970s and 1980s. They began to gather for this every Thursday, from 1977 at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, in public defiance of the government's law against mass assemblies. Wearing white headscarves to symbolize the diapers (nappies) of their lost children, embroidered with the names and dates of birth of their offspring, now young adults, the mothers marched in twos in solidarity to protest the denials of their children's existence or their mistreatment by the military regime. Despite personal risks, they wanted to hold the government accountable for the human rights violations which were committed in the Dirty War.

Activism and reaction

The white shawl of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, painted on the floor in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the first major group to organize against the Argentina regime's human rights violations. Together, the women created a dynamic and unexpected force, which existed in opposition to traditional constraints on women in Latin America. These mothers came together to push for information on their own children and this highlighted the human rights violations and the scale of the protest drew press attention, raising awareness on a local and global scale. Their persistence to publicly remember and try to find their children, the sustained group organisation, the use of symbols and slogans, and the silent weekly protests attracted reactive measures from those in power.

The military government considered these women to be politically subversive; the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Azucena Villaflor De Vincenti, placed the names of 'the missing' in a newspaper in December 1977 (on International Human Rights Day) was kidnapped, tortured and murdered (later found to have been killed on a 'death flight' and her body disposed of in the sea), along with French nuns Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet who also supported the movement. This was done at the command of Alfredo Astiz and Jorge Rafael Videla (who was a senior commander in the Argentine Army and dictator of Argentina from 1976 to 1981), both of whom were later sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the repression of dissidents during the Dirty War.

Esther Ballestrino and María Ponce de Bianco, two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, also "disappeared".

In 1983, former military officers began to reveal information about some of the regime's human rights violations. Eventually, the military has admitted that over 9,000 of those abducted are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number of missing is closer to 30,000. Most are presumed dead. Many of these prisoners were high school students, young professionals, and union workers who were suspected of having opposed the government. Those 'taken' were generally below the age of 35, as were the members of the regime who tortured and murdered them. There were a disproportionate number of Jewish "disappeared" as the military was anti-Semitic, as documented in Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. This documented the testimony of Jacobo Timerman and his experience being arrested and tortured during this time.

It took until 2005 and DNA identification for many of the mass graves and human remains to be exhumed and cremated or buried; Azucena's ashes were interred in the Plaza de Mayo itself.

Today, the Mothers are engaged in the struggle for human, political, and civil rights in Latin America and elsewhere.

Origins of the movement

On 30 April 1977, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti and a dozen other mothers walked to the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina's capital city.

The original founders of the group were Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas; María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia, María Mercedes and Cándida Gard (four sisters); Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Acuña de Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin, and Senora De Caimi.

When the disappearances began, each mother thought that their child's disappearance was a single unique case. Initially, the lack of media attention on the disappearances led the mothers to believe that they were alone in their plight. As each mother visited prisons, hospitals, and police stations searching for their children, they each began to notice other mothers who were also searching for their children. The women began to realize that these disappearances were systematic, organized, and planned. Most of the women came from traditional working-class backgrounds and had limited knowledge of political processes. These women banded together to confront the regime as a unified front of mothers seeking answers about their missing children.

These women shared the experience of each having had at least one child who had been 'taken' by the military government. The mothers declared that between 1970 and 1980, more than 8,500 individuals became "Desaparecidos" or "the disappeared." These people were erased from public records with no government traces of arrests or evidence of charges against them.

The women decided to risk a public protest, although gatherings of more than three people were banned, by linking arms in pairs, as if on a stroll just across the street from the presidential office building, the Casa Rosada (the Pink House). The mothers chose this site for its high visibility, and they were hoping for information on their whereabouts to recover imprisoned or to properly bury their children.

The "disappeared" were believed to have been abducted by agents of the Argentine government during the years known as the Dirty War (1976–1983). Those whose locations were found, often had been tortured and killed and their bodies disposed of in rural areas or unmarked graves.

Becoming a movement

As growing numbers joined weekly marches on Thursdays, the day the first few met, the Mothers also began an international campaign to defy the propaganda distributed by the military regime. This campaign brought the attention of the world to Argentina.

A policeman (Carlos Gallone) and a Mother during an act of protest at Plaza de Mayo, October 1982

One year after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was founded, hundreds of women were participating, gathering in the Plaza for weekly demonstrations. They found strength in each other by marching in public, and attracting some press. They made signs with photos of their children and publicized their children's names. They wore white headscarves embroidered with the names and dates of births of their lost children.

The government tried to trivialize their action calling them "las locas" (the madwomen).

As the number of disappeared grew, the movement grew, and the Mothers were getting international attention. They began to try to build pressure from outside governments against the Argentine dictatorship, by sharing the many stories of the "disappeared".

On 10 December 1977, International Human Rights Day, the Mothers published a newspaper advertisement with the names of their missing children. That same night, Azucena Villaflor (one of the original founders) was kidnapped from her home in Avellaneda by a group of armed men. She is reported to have been taken to the infamous ESMA torture centre, and from there on a "death flight" over the ocean. In-flight, the abducted were drugged, stripped, and flung into the sea or killed and thrown overboard.

Also an estimated 500 of the missing are the children who were born in concentration camps or prisons to pregnant 'disappeared' women; many of these babies were given in illegal adoptions to military families and others associated with the regime. Their birth mothers were generally believed to have been killed. The numbers are hard to determine due to the secrecy surrounding the abductions.

Global impact

Mercedes Colás de Meroño

In 1978, when Argentina hosted the World Cup, the Mothers' demonstrations at the Plaza were covered by the international press in town for the sporting event.

Later when Adolfo Scilingo spoke at the National Commission on Disappeared People, he described how many prisoners were drugged and thrown out of planes to their deaths in the Atlantic Ocean. For years following the regime, from early 1978 onwards, residents who lived along the Río de la Plata have found human remains of those abducted, murdered and dumped at sea.

Some of the movement's most prominent supporters' bodies were never found, such as French national Léonie Duquet. Duquet and her sister Alice Domon, both French nuns, were taken during the Dirty War. Their disappearance attracted international attention and outrage, with demands for a United Nations investigation of human rights abuses in the country. France demanded information on the sisters, but the Argentine government denied all responsibility for them.

In 2005, forensic anthropologists dug up some remains of bodies that had been buried in an unmarked grave after washing ashore (in late December 1977) near the beach resort of Santa Teresita, south of Buenos Aires. DNA testing identified among them Azucena Villaflor, Esther Careaga and María Eugenia Bianco, three pioneer Mothers of the Plaza who had "disappeared". In December 2005, Azucena Villaflor's ashes were buried in the Plaza de Mayo itself.

The impact of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Movement

Years later

Years later, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo emerged…Dedicated to finding their grandchildren who were born in prison and were given to military personnel of the junta through illegal adoption. With the help of scientists, they have been able to use DNA to find their grandchildren as grown adults. By 2009 they had identified 97 grandchildren.

40 years later

For 40 years, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, who bravely confronted the military dictatorship after their children were forcibly disappeared, continue to march for justice. Initially labeled the "Mad Mothers," they defied fear and silence to expose the atrocities committed by the military, resulting in the trial and sentencing of over 1,000 perpetrators by 2016. Now, in their late 80s, they warn of a new threat as the current government seeks to downplay the dictatorship's scope. Concerned about historical revisionism, the mothers, hailed as human rights champions, stress the importance of preserving the memory of the 1976-1983 dictatorship's victims amid efforts to whitewash history. Despite splits and challenges, their legacy endures, symbolized by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who continue to uncover the identities of abducted children. The Mothers persist in their fight, even as age and the changing political landscape present new obstacles.

DNA testing

In 2021, the Argentinian government launched large-scale efforts to identify and reunite these stolen children with their biological families. DNA testing kits were sent to consulates around the world to help identify victims and locate the children of the disappeared, known as desaparecidos. Many of these individuals, now adults, are living unaware of their true identity. The article tells the story of Javier Penino Viñas, a 45-year-old banker living in London, who was illegally adopted by a high-ranking Argentinian navy officer, Jorge Vildoza, and his wife, Ana María Grimaldos. Javier's biological parents, Cecilia Viñas and Hugo Penino, were abducted in 1977, and Javier was raised by his adoptive parents without knowledge of his true origins. Efforts to trace the stolen children involve collaboration with organizations such as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), which works to find children illegally adopted during the dictatorship. The Abuelas use DNA testing to match individuals with their biological families.

A human rights group in Argentina, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, announced that DNA tests have confirmed the identity of a man who was forcibly separated from his mother during the country's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. This revelation brings the total number of such cases to 133. The man, whose name was not disclosed, is the biological son of political dissidents Cristina Navajas and Julio Santucho. His abduction occurred in 1977, and he was registered as the child of a member of the security forces and a nurse. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which estimates that around 500 children were taken from their parents during the dictatorship, uses DNA tests to locate these individuals. Cristina Navajas, a member of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party and the Revolutionary Army of the People, was seized by security forces in 1976 when she was two months pregnant. She was held in various detention centers, where she gave birth to her son, who was then taken from her. Navajas is among the estimated 30,000 people who disappeared during the dictatorship. The newly discovered brother expressed a desire to meet his entire biological family. Miguel Santucho, one of his biological brothers, stated that the man is happy and surprised by the magnitude of what he found. Despite the challenges faced by their mother during the dictatorship, she demonstrated remarkable willpower to give birth to the child. The family, including their father who survived the dictatorship, is expected to be reunited.

AI imagines adult faces of children who disappeared

Argentine publicist Santiago Barros is utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to imagine the adult faces of children who were taken from their parents during Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. Barros uploads these AI-generated images to an Instagram account called iabuelas, combining photos of disappeared fathers and mothers from the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo's public archive. The goal is not to replace DNA testing efforts by the Grandmothers group but to raise awareness and prompt reflection among individuals over 46 who may have doubts about their origins. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo estimates that around 500 children were taken during the dictatorship, with 133 grandchildren located through genetic analysis. While the group appreciates Barros' initiative for raising awareness, they emphasize the importance of DNA testing for accurate identification. Some individuals who have accessed iabuelas have noticed standardization in the images, leading to questions about their accuracy. Despite concerns, there have been cases where families searching for lost relatives found striking resemblances in the AI-generated faces. The images are uploaded with a disclaimer that iabuelas is an "unofficial artistic project," and results from AI can be inaccurate. The Grandmothers group cautions against creating false expectations and emphasizes the need for DNA testing for reliable identification.

Divisions and radicalization

The mothers with President Néstor Kirchner

Never giving up their pressure on the regime, after the military gave up its authority to a civilian government in 1983, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo rekindled hopes that they might learn the fates of their children, pushing again for the information.

Beginning in 1984, teams assisted by the American geneticist Mary-Claire King began to use DNA testing to identify remains, when bodies of the "disappeared" were found.

The government then conducted a national commission to collect testimony about the "disappeared", hearing from hundreds of witnesses. In 1985, it began the prosecution of men indicted for crimes, beginning with the Trial of the Juntas, in which several high-ranking military officers were convicted and sentenced.

The military threatened a coup to prevent a widening of prosecutions. In 1986, Congress passed Ley de Punto Final, which stopped the prosecutions for some years.

But in 2003, Congress repealed the Pardon Laws, and in 2005 the Argentine Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. During the Kirchner administration, the prosecution of war crimes was re-opened. Former high-ranking military and security officers have been convicted and sentenced in new cases. Among the charges is the stealing of babies of the disappeared. The first major figure, Miguel Etchecolatz, was convicted and sentenced in 2006. Most of the members of the Junta were imprisoned for crimes against humanity.

With the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group set up in 1977, the Mothers have identified 256 missing children who were adopted soon after being born to mothers in prison or camps who later "disappeared". Seven of the identified children have died. At the beginning of 2018, 137 of those children, now grown adults, were found and were offered to meet their biological families. Some Mothers and Grandmothers suffered disappointments when the grandchildren, now adults, did not want to know their hidden history, or refused to be tested. Parents who were judged in court to be guilty of adopting – or "appropriating" – the children of the disappeared, while knowing the truth about their origins, were susceptible to imprisonment.

In 1986, the Mothers split into two factions. One group, called the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line, focused on legislation, the recovery of the remains of their children, and bringing ex-officials to justice. Hebe de Bonafini continued to lead a more radical faction under the name Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association. These mothers felt responsible for carrying on their children's political work and assumed the agenda that originally led to the disappearance of the dissidents. Unlike the Founding Line, the association refused government help or compensation. They pledged not to recognize the deaths of their children until the government would admit its fault.

A scholar of the movement, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, wrote that the association faction wanted "a complete transformation of Argentine political culture" and "envisions a socialist system free of the domination of special interests". The Mothers Association is now backed by younger militants who support socialism.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Bonafini said "I was happy when I first heard the news, that for once they were the ones attacked, I'm not going to lie." and "being the U.S.A the most terrorist of all countries, throwing bombs everywhere around the world" but "felt bad for the innocent workers dead (because of the terrorist attack)." Her remarks led to some criticism in mainstream media.

Speaking for the Mothers, she rejected the investigations of alleged Iranian involvement in the 1994 AMIA Bombing (the terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community center), saying the CIA and Mossad were misleading the investigation; making a statement that they repudiate "the tragic attack, but respect for the victims and their families requires to investigate and do justice," without being "politically manipulated in the service of US interests."

'Final' March of Resistance

The Madres de la Plaza de Mayo march in October 2006

On 26 January 2006, members of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo Association faction announced what they said was their final annual March of Resistance at the Plaza de Mayo, saying "the enemy isn't in the Government House anymore." They acknowledged the significance of President Néstor Kirchner's success in having the Full Stop Law (Ley de Punto Final) and the Law of Due Obedience repealed and declared unconstitutional. They said they would continue weekly Thursday marches in pursuit of action on other social causes.

The Founding Line faction announced that it would continue both the Thursday marches and the annual marches to commemorate the long struggle of resistance to the dictatorship.

Social involvement and political controversies

The association faction remained close to Kirchnerism. They established a newspaper (La Voz de las Madres), a radio station, and a university (Popular University of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo).

The association at one time managed a federally funded housing program, Sueños Compartidos ("Shared Dreams"), which it founded in 2008. By 2011, Sueños Compartidos had completed 5,600 housing units earmarked for slum residents, and numerous other facilities in six provinces and the city of Buenos Aires.

Its growing budgets, which totaled around US$300 million allocated between 2008 and 2011 (of which $190 million had been spent), came under scrutiny. There was controversy when the chief financial officer of Sueños Compartidos, Sergio Schoklender, and his brother Pablo (the firm's attorney) were alleged to have embezzled funds. The Schoklender brothers had been convicted in 1981 for the murder of their parents and served 15 years in prison. After gaining Bonafini's confidence, they were managing the project's finances with little oversight from the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo or the program's licensor, the Secretary of Public Works. Their friendship with the association ended in June 2011 after Bonafini learned of irregularities in their handling of the group's finances. Following an investigation ordered by Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide, the Secretary of Public Works canceled the Sueños Compartidos contract in August 2011. The outstanding projects were transferred to the Undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development.

On October 25, 2017 the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo supported the marxist colombian warfare called FARC while this organization kept kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt. They also maintained close political ties with the basque terrorits organization ETA, the peruvian warfare Sendero Luminoso and the communist government of Cuba.

Gender and motherhood

Issues of gender and motherhood were embedded in this movement. From its inception, the Mothers has been a strictly women-only organization, as the mothers who lost their children were asserting their existence in the embroidery scarves, posters and demands for restoration. In the later political movement, the women felt it had to be women-only partly to ensure their voices and actions would not be lost in a male-dominated movement, and partly out of a belief that men would insist on a lengthy bureaucratic process rather than immediate action. They also believed that women were more tireless and had more emotional strength than men.

Gender separatism reaffirmed its status as a women's movement, although it also raised the question among some scholars of whether the movement truly challenged the notion of female passivity, and whether or not it would have sent a more powerful message to have had male family members involved as well.

The Mothers movement also raised questions of women in political space and the boundaries surrounding that space. The socially constructed gender roles prevalent in Argentine society restricted the arena of politics, political mobilisation, and confrontation to men. When the Mothers entered the Plaza de Mayo, a public space with historical significance, they politicised their role as mothers in society and redefined the values associated with both politics and motherhood itself. Although they did not challenge the patriarchal structure of Argentine society, by crossing boundaries into the masculinised political sphere, they expanded spaces of representation for Argentine women and opened the way for new forms of civic participation.

The Mothers were committed to child-centred politics, symbolised by the white scarves they wore on their heads. The scarves were originally nappies, or to represent diapers, and were embroidered with the names of their disappeared children or relatives. These headscarves identified the Mothers and symbolised children, and thus life, as well as hope and maternal care. The colour white also symbolised their refusal to wear a black mantilla and go into mourning. Children were at the heart of the movement, as the Mothers fought for a system that would respect human life and honour its preservation.

Santa Fe commemoration of 2000 rounds of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, 2016

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo politicised and gave new value to the traditional role of mothers. They used motherhood to frame their protest, demanding the rights inherent to their role: to conserve life. They protested not only what had been done to their children, but also to themselves as mothers by taking them away. The heart of the movement was always "women's feelings, mother's feelings", according to Hebe de Bonafini. She further stated that "it was the strength of women, of mothers, that kept us going." The women's identity as mothers did not restrict them from participating or making an impact in a masculinised political space.

Their public protests contradicted the traditional, private domain of motherhood, and by mobilising themselves, they politicised their consciousness as women. They restricted themselves to a conservative representation of motherhood, which avoided controversy and attracted the support of international media. They refuted the concept that to be taken seriously or to be successful, a movement either has to be gender-neutral, or masculine: femininity and motherhood was integral to the Mothers' protest.

Stereotype

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were portrayed as a threat to the state, even though their cause was to seek information about their missing children. The junta's attempt to control the narrative and depict these mothers as enemies, using gendered language and stereotypes to marginalize and dehumanize them.

Gender

The struggle of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is contextualized within the broader gender dynamics of the Dirty War, where women, both as individuals and symbolically, were targeted and subjected to violence by the military regime. There is the broader theme of the militaristic regime's attempt to control and manipulate representations of women, both in terms of their roles within families and as political actors in society.

Feminism

Feminism is not the hatred of men but the demand to want to be treated equal to them. “ It’s necessary to clarify this and then you understand you’ve got rights, equal to those of men. We belong to different genders; we walk side by side. You have the same rights, and if not, you protest”. She did not choose to be a feminist she became one when she decided to start marching. Feminism includes fighting for the rights that women deserve including abortion, oppression, and homosexuality.

The Mothers and Fathers

The mothers

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo became the first human rights organization and female activist in Latin America. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina fought to end torture, illegal imprisonment, unwarranted detainment, and sought to find thousands of people who had gone missing without a trace. Disappearance occurred because no paper trail of these acts on the citizens existed. They organized by writing letters to the military, the navy, the air force, and army, delivering them in person. They took turns reciting habeas corpus and going around sharing their personal losses. They didn’t assign official roles and planned from their homes.

The fathers

The fathers are mentioned as having a very small role in these movements, such as calling lawyers, providing transportation etc., but didn't know enough about politics unlike the mothers who had a “clear mind”. This pushed the women into the  “double role”, such as Activists, Constant organizing for the movement, Multiple arrests, Endearing mistreatment from police and government, Housewife, Housekeeper, and Meal planner.

Grandmothers

Main article: Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Spanish: Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is an organization which has the aim of finding the "stolen" babies, whose mothers were killed during the Junta's dictatorship in 1977. Its president is Estela Barnes de Carlotto. As of June 2019, their efforts have resulted in finding 130 grandchildren.

Testimony of Estela Carlotto

Estela Carlotto is a President of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Estela Carlotto was the mother of 2 daughters. Carlotto raised her daughters with a lot of freedom, independence, and self-determination. As we have discussed in this class, women who are raised with these ideas in the home are more likely to express these ideas politically, and that as the case here. Carlotto and her husband were not particularly politically active, however they opposed Peronism (socially progressive and stems from socialist thought). Peronism was popular amongst the middle class and was made popular by Juan Perón. Carlotto’s daughters became Peronists, and since La Plata was a university town with a strong labor movement it suffered the actions of Triple A (Alianza, Anticomunista, and Argentina), a sector of the federal military and police force. In La Plata many people were abducted and murdered, and their bodies would be thrown to the streets by the Triple A. Carlotto’s daughters wanted radical change and were active in the struggle to raise class consciousness.

On August 1st, 1977 Carlotto’s husband was abducted because of his relationship to his daughter Laura. If they wanted him back, they were required to pay a random and were given one day to collect 40 million pesos. It was through this that Carlotto first learned how to act and move in the search of a disappeared person. This was the beginning of Calotto’s searching journey. She went to hospitals, police stations, presented a habeas corpus (where a person can report unlawful detention of someone and take it to court), spoke to politicians, and made many other points of contacts. Her husband was liberated 25 days later. Laura went missing several months later. A military officer told Carlotto that they had killed all the prisoners. Carlotto thought he was crazy, this wasn’t really heard of, surely the government couldn’t just murder their prisoners. He replied stating that in Uruguay they did not take their revolutionaries seriously and the Tupamoaros had grown strong because of it, this was not going to happen to them in Argentina. She had later learned that her daughter was 6 months pregnant and Laura was still alive, Carlotto was informed that she should be able to claim the child at the Casa Cuna. Sadly, this was not the case; Carlotto began gathering information on her daughter and had been told that Laura had resisted arrest at a road blockade and been shot by the military. However, these shootings were just fabrications. The prisoners were actually taken to detention centers and massacred. Laura had died at 23 years old. Carlotto has continued her search for her grandson, who is 27 at the time of her testimonial. So many children that were taken in this way have been appropriated and have no idea. Because of this, the children don’t search out their parents or grandparents, so it is their job to find the children.

Found her grandson, Ignacio Montoya Carlotto

CNN Headline “After 36 years, Argentine activist finds stolen grandson.” In 1977 Estela Carlotto’s pregnant daughter, Laura, was arrested. The Argentinian regime let her live long enough to have the baby before killing her. ‘I begged God not to let me die before I found him’: Estela Carlotto hugs her grandson Ignacio Montoya Carlotto, who is son of her daughter Laura, who ‘disappeared’ in 1977.

The Mothers and Grandmothers are still hard at work and have identified another missing child as recently as July of this year. They are now using even more advanced technology like AI, to predict what the missing grandchildren may look like today, and posting those pictures in hopes of identifying more of their missing children and grandchildren.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina) were founded off the basis of grief, struggle, and their search for the missing. The call to come together stemmed from the military dictatorship rather than from the founders themselves (The Dictatorship lasted from 1976 to 1983). They are a prime example of a Motherist Movement. Their goal was to find their sons, daughters, and grandchildren that had been taken and disappeared during the dictatorships’ reign.

Prior to Carlotto learning of Laura’s death, she had joined the Mothers and Grandmothers who were organizing and working in La Plata. Early on they did not have a formal organization and were learning as they went, they would go to people’s houses as salespeople and try to gather information. Once they became well-known they had to create a nonprofit organization with a legal status, and a committee, inscribed in the human rights category. There were 13 grandmothers on the committee and 7 others working alongside them. However, small the grandmothers may have been, they are an excellent example of how even small-scale organizing can be incredibly effective. Once the constitutional government was put in place in 1984, they began using attorneys and psychologists to aid their search. They developed genetic procedures to identify their grandchildren accurately and created the National Bank of Genetic Data.

The Search and the National Bank of Genetic Data

The grandmothers received help from the United States and established in a seminar that the blood sample from a relative of the child could rebuild the whole genetic pattern of their parents. Many say that the grandmothers were “the promoters of genetic science.” For the past several years, the grandmothers create ads that link the grandmothers to those who are having doubts about their identity. The grandmothers work closely with the government and the National Committee for the Right to Identity (CONADI).

The Right and the Struggle to Identity

The grandmothers have a very specific organization but have opened up to other areas such as education and matters concerning children, the elderly, and women. Many children that have been found end up working in the offices with the grandmothers. During the dictatorship, 400–500 children were stolen. Many of which were born in concentration camps. The grandmothers have 240 reports and another 100 by CONADI. Of all the missing children, 80 have been found. The National Committee for Disappeared Persons published Nunca Más, a national report that officially lists the disappeared. They are currently fighting for the ratification o the CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Awards and prizes

• In 1992, all members of the Mothers' association were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
• In 1997, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz was awarded the Gleitsman International Activist Award by the Gleitsman Foundation.
• In 1997, the organization was awarded the Geuzenpenning in Vlaardingen, Netherlands
• In 1999, the organization was awarded the United Nations Prize for Peace Education.
• On 10 December 2003, the Grandmothers' president, Estela Barnes de Carlotto, was awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Representation in other media

• The Official Story is a film related to the "stolen babies" cases.
• Cautiva is another film related to the "stolen babies" cases.
• An opera entitled Las Madres de la Plaza (2008) premiered in Leffler Chapel at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. It was written in a collaboration of students, staff, and faculty of the school, headed up by James Haines and John Rohrkemper.
• In an episode of Destinos set in Argentina, protagonist Raquel is told about the Mothers of the Plaza and sees a portion of a march.
• On "Little Steven" Van Zandt's 1984 release, "Voice of America", he pays tribute to Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo with his song, "Los Desaparecidos".
• Rock band U2 wrote a song, "Mothers of the Disappeared", inspired by, and in tribute to, their cause. The song appeared on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree.
• The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (Spanish: Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) is a 1985 Argentine documentary film directed by Susana Blaustein Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
• The documentary Los Desaparecidos (The Disappeared, 2008) relives the horrors of Argentina’s Dirty War. The film follows a child of the disappeared and his involvement in Los Madres is touched on throughout the documentary.

See also

• Black Sash
• Films depicting Latin American military dictatorships
• Ladies in White
• Maria Eugenia Sampallo
• Mourning Mothers
• Saturday Mothers
• Tiananmen Mothers
• Women in Black
• Jorge Rafael Videla
• Estela de Carlotto
• Laura Carlotto
• Alice Domon
• Léonie Duquet
• Alfredo Astiz

Documentary Film The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo

“The Mothers of Plaza De Mayo” is a documentary film directed by Lourdes Portillo and Susana Blaustein in 1985, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary and was an Official Selection at the San Francisco International Film Festival. This source is highly relevant to the topic of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo as it provides a visual and historical context for the movement. The documentary is particularly valuable for understanding the plight of the Argentinian mothers in the ‘70s and ‘80s and their demand to know the fate of the “disappeared” individuals. It sheds light on the empowerment of women in a society that expected them to be silent, which is a central theme in the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’s struggle.

The Mothers of Plaza De Mayo: Argentinian Mothers Fight for Justice, 1985, 1hr03min