by JOEL RICHARDS
Poster by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo NGO with photos of the disappeared/Wikipedia
Most are in their 80s. They include an optician, a pilot, a teacher, a bank clerk, and a lawyer. Privately, they all suffered the loss of a son, daughter, or, in some cases, two or three children, during the repression of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. And during this year’s 34th anniversary of the 1976 coup, Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner honored four of them for their human rights work during the past three decades.
Yet they do not wear white headscarves. They do not march in unison at the Plaza de Mayo every Thursday. They are not recognized around the world for their bravery and their relentless campaigning for truth and justice. They are not the grandmothers, the mothers, nor the children of the disappeared. They are the fathers.