The Dirty War Revisited

Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity

Tuesday Feb. 7, Norman

     

     Today in Norman University of Oklahoma students learned about the Dirty War in Argentina and it's reprecussions through a documentary titled "Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity."  This film was shown to OU students in Gaylord Hall's Excellence and Ethics Auditorium at 7 p.m.

     The documentary, a brainchild of University of North Carolina Professor C. A. Tuggle, came out two weeks ago.  Professor John Schmeltzer said that the reason that OU students got the opportunity to see the film so close to its premiere is because of Tuggle's close relationship with Gaylord Dean Joe Foote.

      Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo follows the history the 'counter-terrorism' tactics used by the Argentinian dictatorship during the Dirty War (1976-1983).   During this war up to 30,000 people went missing.   Some of them are still missing. This figure includes men, women, and children.

     One of those tactics used, according to the group Las Abuelas (The Grandmothers), included imprisoning pregnant women, letting them give birth, and then killing them.  The babies were then given over to military leaders and their families. Once the children had grown up, they rarely knew where they really came from.   Part of  Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo follows these children as they find out the news.

     To put the human cost of the Dirty War into context, 30,000 human beings went missing.  Few of those were ever found again.  Thirty thousand, however, may not seem like a large number of people in comparison with today's figure of 7 billion world population.    However, if you do the math, here's what you get: those 30,000 people lined head to foot would stretch 30 miles.

     This length would be sufficient to cross Lake Michigan  (This is assuming a conservative 5-foot-and-3-inch foot height per person.  This is the average stature of an Argentinian woman today, according to this website.)

     After the Documentary finished, Professor Tuggle answered student's questions via Skype.  When he was asked about why he wanted to make Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, he said

     "We want people to come to the realization the we've come to.  That is, that to have a knowledge of a need to protect human rights is one thing.  To have a passion for it is something else."

     According to the documentary's Google docs calendar, the next stop for the film is the University of Maryland on February 14th.

    Notes: The playing of the Documentary halted twice, due to a faulty DVD... Professor Tuggle said that his personal outlay for the project was around $15,000 dollars...  Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayolasted approximately one hour...  The film earned a round of applause from the students...

     For more information on the Dirty War, visit Global Security's website and read this short article.

     

     For more information on Los Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and The search for Identity, go to their website.