On Thursdays at 3:30pm in La Plaza de Mayo, las madres de la plaza de mayo march in remembrance of “los desaperacidos” the disappeared. Here is your very condensed history lesson on Buenos Aires (if anyone finds error in my writing, please correct me!). After the time in which Eva Peron and her husband were in control of the government, the military took over and created a military reign. Activists rose up against this government, but often these activists would disappear in the night. They were taken to clandestine prisons, beaten, killed, or dropped (drugged, but still alive) in the Plata River. These were mostly people in their 20s. Sometimes they had children, and if the children were young enough, they were taken away and given to those who were in support of the government to be raised as their own children. An interesting fictionalized movie about this is “Cautiva”- the story of a 15-year-old girl who finds out her real parents were actually some of those who disappeared. Anyway, every Thursday, the mothers of those who disappeared during this time, return to Plaza de Mayo to march in remembrance of their children. It was actually quite emotional for me. While there, the Foundation of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo gave us banners in support of the mothers and several of us actually marched with the mothers.
As we marched they actually read off the names of several of the people who disappeared. I have to say, I was much closer to tears than I thought I would be watching those mothers march with their white handkerchiefs on their heads and thinking about how they lost their grown children over 30 years ago. They march so that others remember the brutality of that time, so that others will not have to live through what they have lived through- losing their children way before their time. Oh that we could all learn from our history as these women hope we will.
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