Everything about The Mothers Of The Plaza De Mayo totally explained
The
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (
Spanish:
Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo) is an association of
Argentine mothers whose children "
disappeared" during the
Dirty War, the military dictatorship between
1976 and
1983.
Origins of the movement
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a unique organization of Argentine women who have become human rights activists in order to achieve a common goal. For over three decades, the Mothers have fought for the right to re-unite with their abducted children.
In protests, they wear white scarves to symbolize the white dove of peace. The name of the organization comes from the
Plaza de Mayo in central
Buenos Aires, where the bereaved mothers and grandmothers first gathered. They gather every Thursday afternoon for a half hour walk around the plaza.
The Mothers' association was formed by women who had met each other in the course of trying to find their missing sons and daughters, who were abducted by agents of the Argentine government during the years known as the
Dirty War (
1976–
1983), many of whom were then tortured and killed. The 14 founders of the association,
Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin, Sra. De Caimi, started the demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the
Casa Rosada presidential palace, on
30 April 1977. Villaflor had been searching for one of her sons and her daughter-in-law for six months. She was taken to the ESMA
concentration camp on
10 December 1978.
The military have admitted that over 9,000 of those kidnapped are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number is closer to 30,000. The numbers are hard to determine due to the secrecy surrounding the abductions. Three of the founders of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have also "disappeared". After the fall of the military regime, a civilian government commission put the number of disappeared at close to 11,000.
In January 2005 the
body of
French nun
Leonie Duquet, a supporter of the organization, was exhumed, without an established identity. Duquet's disappearance had caused international outrage towards the Argentine military government.
DNA tests concluded, on
August 30 of that year, that the body exhumed in January was that of Duquet.
Azucena Villaflor's remains, together with those of two other pioneer Mothers, Esther Careaga and María Eugenia Bianco, were also identified by a forensics team in mid-2005. Villaflor's ashes were buried at the foot of the May Pyramid in the Plaza on
8 December 2005.
Divisions and radicalization
In later years, the association grew and became more persistent, demanding answers from the government as to where their missing children were. After the military gave up its authority to a civilian government in
1983, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have pressed the new government to help find answers to the kidnappings that took place in the Dirty War years.
In 1986, the Mothers association split into two factions. The
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo – Founding Line focuses on legislation to help in recovering remains and bringing ex-officials to justice.
In the course of their struggle, most part of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo began to see themselves as inheritors of their children's dreams and responsible for carrying forward their children's work, even to the adopting the radical agenda embraced by some of their disappeared sons and daughters. As a result, the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association faction led by
Hebe de Bonafini takes a more political approach. This group doesn't doubt the fact that their children disappeared, and they're aware that the majority of them faced torture and most of them were ultimately murdered. Nevertheless, they're refusing any help offered by the government as compensation for their children's absence. Many still maintain that they won't recognize the deaths until the government admits its fault and its connection to the dirty war and its systematically forced disappearances.
A scholar of the movement,
Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, wrote that the association faction wants "a complete transformation of Argentine political culture" and "envisions a socialist system free of the domination of special interests." The Mothers association is backed by younger militants who openly support a Cuban-style revolution in Argentina. On the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, Bonafini defended the actions of the airline hijackers calling them "courageous", stating that many people "had been avenged", and connecting their ideals with the cause of the guerrilla groups in 1970s' Argentina.
(External Link
). Speaking for the Mothers, she also rejected the investigations of the alleged Iranian involvement in the
AMIA Bombing (the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community center), denouncing the Argentine government was manipulating them to serve U.S. interests.
(External Link). The Mothers have published a book with a compilation of
Saddam Hussein's writings, among others forms of support to the
Baathist regime in Iraq
(External Link)(External Link)
Final Resistance's March
On
26 January 2006, members of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo Association made their final annual March of Resistance around the Plaza de Mayo, saying no more such marches are needed because they don't perceive the current government as hostile or indifferent to the fate of the Dirty War missing. Their weekly Thursday marches will continue, however, in pursuit of action on other social causes. And the Founding Line faction will continue both the Thursday marches and the annual marches. Today, despite having faced a crippled economy, Argentina is considered the 3rd most democratic country in Latin America (Lagos, 134). Argentina is an example of how peaceful activism may be able to bring about public awareness, but that democracy doesn't work in a political system rife with corruption and "mafioso" tactics.
Support of leftist guerrillas
On a speech on December 3, 2007, Hebe de Bonafini said "We are brothers of the
FARC".
FARC is a leftist guerrilla group that, for the last 40 years, has tried to stage an overthrow of the government in Colombia, financed by drug traficking, tortures and kidnapping. During the same speech, she blamed the government of Colombia and its president,
Alvaro Uribe, for the difficulties in the
Humanitarian exchange affair.
The group has been branded as a terrorist group by the US state department and the European Union. The group has been accused by
Amnesty International of underage recruiting. Underage teenage girls are forcibly used for combat against Colombian security forces and to give sexual favors to the on-ground commanders. When pregnant, most of them are forced to abort by chemical or mechanical ways. If they keep the pregnancy, the child is taken away months after birth. Many of them end up in Colombian child-welfare system.
Sting & U2
The cause of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was immortalized both in the
Sting song
They Dance Alone and in the
U2 song
Mothers of the Disappeared. At an Amnesty International in
Buenos Aires in 1988 and in a concert in
Buenos Aires in
1998, the Mothers appeared on stage with
Sting and years later
U2 to dance with
Sting and
Peter Gabriel and during the
U2 concert to announce their children's names to the crowd as the song was performed.
The Grandmothers
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (
Spanish:
Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is an organization who has the aim of finding the stolen babies during the "Dirty War". Its president is
Estela B. de Carlotto.
Awards and prizes
Cultural References
In 2008, an opera entitled
Las Madres de la Plaza premiered in Leffler Chapel at
Elizabethtown College in
Pennsylvania, telling the story of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. It was written by a collaboration of students, staff, and faculty of the school, headed up by James Haines and John Rohrkemper.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mothers Of The Plaza De Mayo'.
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