Photo By: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo
This week, news stormed the world of the forced adoptions in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. Parliaments said it is to investigate the issue which is said to have affected over 250,000 women. Single mothers under 24 and who were unmarried were forced to give up their children under the pretense that they could not take care of the child. It is believed that around 500,000 babies were adopted during this time before a change in the adoption laws in 1975. In Spain, during the Francoist era, a very similar thing happened. Republican families that were against Francisco Franco, the ruthless dictator, would be either killed, persecuted, or forced to give up their children so that they could be raised by Franco supporters. This horrible story of pain, grief, and confusion, can be understood and expanded upon in Ruta Sepety’s most recent book, The Fountain of Silence. However, this phenomenon is much more common than many realize. One of the most prominent examples of this blatant abuse of civil rights is in Argentina during and after what is called the Dirty War. Although it was not a war in the direct sense of the war, it tore apart lives, it took away lives, and it was the turning point in Argentinean history given that the government began actively and violently oppressing its people after a period of subliminal oppression.
To understand the rise of the torment-like situation that afflicted Argentina in the 20th century, one must mention Juan Peron. Peron was an Argentinean president who imposed strict and extreme socialist ideals into Argentina, ultimately catalyzing the Peronist movement. He came into power after a military junta took over the government in 1943. He began working in lower government positions, but eventually, after rallying the Argentinean people through labor reforms and creating liaisons between the government and labor unions, he became president. Although Peron was, in theory, a president, many consider his regime to be widely authoritarian. Peron died in 1974, and his widow, Isabel Peron, took power that same year. She became the first female president in the world and continued the Peronist regime. As she established her position as Argentina’s new leader, Operation Condor was starting to rev up its engines. Said operation was a campaign funded by the United States which aimed to depose socialism and communism in Latin America. Operation Condor resulted in many political coups, disappearances, assassinations, and tortures. One of the most gruesome activities carried out under the umbrella of Operation Condor were the “death flights” in which leftist supporters and political dissidents were dropped from airplanes into bodies of water. One of the coups catalyzed by said operation was the Process of National Reorganization which forced Isabel Peron out of presidency and enable a military dictatorship to rise to power. The rise of the “Proceso” as this movement was called led directly to the start of the Dirty war. During this time period over 30,000 people were killed based on their political ideologies. Any person who supported socialism, communism, or left-winged ideologies was labeled as a terrorist and thus killed or kidnapped. According to Margauerite Feitlowitz, the author of A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture, those who fell victim to the dictator’s terror came to be known as the disappeared and the government consistently denied the claims and refused to investigate them.
As if this was not enough, children were taken away from communist-leaning families, and many of the mothers were then killed. Those children were thought to either have disappeared or given to other government-supporting families. The Dirty War was a time of fear for every Argentinean. Although this military government did not face much public condemnation in the beginning of its regime, it was the shift in the 1970s and the start of the Dirty War that showed this movement’s true colors.
Children continuously disappeared alongside their mothers, the number of “the disappeared” grew, and families were becoming desperate. It was in 1977 that the grieving families started taking action. A movement called the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo was a peaceful protest which took place every Thursday. Grieving grandmothers went to the iconic Plaza de Mayo to bring attention to their disappeared grandchildren. They would walk around the park in circles, and the government resorted to calling them “las locas” or “the crazy ones.” The government-controlled media attempted to silence the movement, said that these were madwomen and tried to restrict the movement through curfews, censorship, and death threats from secret police. The women, however, kept marching, and soon the government adopted violence to solve the problem—as they often did. In December 1977, one of the founders of the movement, Azucena Villaflro, was captured and killed. Many other women who participated in the marches also had a similar fate, but the cause persisted. One of the protesters, Gastelu, said in an interview with The Guardian,“People were scared. If I talked about my kidnapped son at the hairdresser or supermarket they would run away. Even listening was dangerous.” Both mothers and grandmothers—in the case that the mothers had been killed— put their lives at risk in order to show their grief and use it as a vehicle for protest and defiance. In one instance, police opened fire on a group of protesters, and they later established a 24-hour-long protest to be held annually. This group of grieving women was the first to stand up against the junta and raise awareness about the abuses carried out by the government.
More recently, the events have come to light again, and 2014 was the first time medical staff were tried for their relationship with the abductions. Two doctors and one midwife were charged with falsifying birth certificates and kidnapping them from leftist supporters so that the children could be reassigned to an “appropriate” family. People abroad have also attempted to aid the situation. Most notably, Mary-Clarie King helped develop a genetic test in order to match families back together. King was an American geneticist, and although her methods were controversial given that some of the adopted children did not want the tests, it has led to the confirmation of 128 stolen children. The genetic exams also led to a “genetic data bank” so that families who want to reconnect can do so. The number of stolen children is estimated to be around 500, but less than half of them have been identified, and even a smaller number of the mothers who were killed have surfaced. The economy started suffering, and the people of Argentina became tired of the constant oppression they suffered. Finally, in 1983 elections are held, and in 1984 the Argentine Truth Commission recognizes 9,000 of the 30,000 disappeared. The government attempted to restore its credibility by trying members of the former bureaucracy, but the movement died down significantly. It was only until 2018 that the true extent of the government’s crimes began being widely known. Human Rights states that the attorney General’s office charged around 3,007 people and convicted 867—of which 110 were acquitted— with crimes against humanity.
There are a lucky few who were able to reunite with their family, but unfortunately, they are the exception, not the norm. To this day, most of the desaparecidos, are simply that: the disappeared. They left a gaping hole in the lives of their loved ones, intricately carved by the oppressive government that ruled them. The Grandmothers and mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are a true testament to women strength and power. They fought for their families, knowing that doing so would risk their lives. Stories of female advocacy have often been buried deep down in history, but it is important to highlight and remember the stories of the strong and empowered women who did not let the social or political climate silence them. It is stories like these that cannot be forgotten. Thanks to the advocacy adopted by these women, the Argentinean junta started losing power, and eventually, their voices affected the perspective of their communities. It was this that led to the dismantling of the junta and the final unveiling of all of the terrors that they committed. Today, the legacy of these women must be remembered. They are a prime example of the power that love and grief generates, and they are evidence of the change that can be catalyzed by harnessing passion and advocacy. The Plaza de Mayo movement must not be forgotten. The stolen children who are yet to be recovered must not be forgotten. The strength demonstrated by these revolutionary women must not be forgotten. Most importantly, however, the power of advocacy and activism must never be undermined.
Written By: Carolina Mejia Rodriguez
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