Today is the 30th anniversary of the first protest march by mothers of the Desaparecidos. During the Dirty War, over 30,000 people disappeared. In 1977, mothers of the Desaparecidos gathered around the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the presidential palace, demanding to know what happened to their sons and daughters.Over the decades, the mothers have garnered recognition internationally for their cause as well as political leverage nationally. Many of them are now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s.
During today's celebration, the mothers sat on a stage, wearing their uniform of a white head-kerchief, clapped along to music bands, and waved Venezuelan flags.
Valerie tells me that the current leader of the mothers has aligned the group with the left-leaning government. And because Argentina has allied itself with Venezuela, that was the reason for the Venezuelan flags.
The mothers might finally get concessions from the government and the government might get street creds by their association with the mothers. Call it a win-win deal. But I was disturbed.
Of course the movement has always been a political one. It stemmed from a reaction to twisted ideological policies and its main aim is to affect policy. Yet fundamentally—mothers searching for answers, asking to know what happened to their children, hoping to bury what parts remain before they themselves are interred—this has nothing to do with politics.
The event felt like a pep rally or a rock festival. I definitely expected the observance to be much more somber. But then, I've always been a party-pooper.
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