Argentina Week One

Although horror seemed to be the unifying theme for this week’s readings about Argentina, I found them more fascinating than any of our other readings.  They were written by survivors of or authors who had had personal relations to the Dirty War.  The accounts, writings, and art were infused with memoirs of the suffering experienced during the Dirty War.  This suffering and honest retelling of the human rights abuses drew me in and engaged me as I read. 

I was surprised again and again as I went through the readings on how fully and completely everything in Argentine life seemed to be affected by human rights abuses.  From the physical and mental torture of the desaparecidos themselves to the confusion and fear of bystanders and exiles, this war took a psychological toll on all of Argentina.  “Never Again” describes torture accounts from survivors in an attempt to memorialize what happened.  I found this very powerful that the new government was willing to have this published.  However, whether this will be effective in the prevention of such human rights abuses again, I am not sure.  However, something must be done.  I admire the mothers of the plaza de mayo for their fearlessness and diligence in demanding answers from the government about their missing loved ones.  The poems and art included in our reading also forcefully capture the pain of this war.  I think all of these works need to be shared and written in the first place to demand and enforce the needs for human rights.