Mothers of Plaza de Mayo

On March 24, 1976, a military coup took over power and gained control of the government of the then president of Argentina, Maria Estela Martínez de Perón.

The military proclaimed that they were taking over the government to set "order", but the order that they imposed was of terror and death. The military regime organized groups of policemen, civil and military forces called "grupos de tareas" (tasks teams) supervised by high range military men that kidnapped and murdered thousands of people; initially sent to clandestine detention centers where they were illegally detained, wildly tortured and finally, in most cases, murdered. There were about 368 detention centers throughout the country.

The word "Desaparecidos" (disappeared) was used for identifying the kidnapped people who never returned to their homes. The relatives of the "Desaparecidos" did not know where they were or if they were dead or alive. The censorship imposed by the military government prohibited the public spreading of these facts and it was not possible and unimaginable to even think of reporting the disappearance of a loved one.

During this period many Argentineans went into exile, including illustrious and distinguished public personalities that decided to leave the country to save their lives or to live freely abroad. Meanwhile, those who stayed were condemned to the silence in order to avoid being kidnapped and eventually murdered.

That environment of fear and silence marked the birth of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), a small group of women that for love to their "disappeared" children; defied the Power.

As their children were kidnapped, the Mothers would knock on all the doors that could give them information about them. They went to the Ministry of the Interior, to military headquarters, barracks, police departments and churches; and even wrote letters to members of the Military, to the chiefs of every military force, navy and air force, asking to be acknowledged in order to bring up their problems; but never received a response.

The Mothers started to know each other while knocking on those doors and one evening in April of 1977, while they were waiting for a priest at the Stella Maris Church, one of them, Azucena Villaflor de Devicenti, said: "If we do this on our own, we will not get anything. Why don't we go to the Plaza de Mayo and when we become a large group, Videla (then president) will have to meet with us ... "Azucena Devicenti chose the Plaza de Mayo as the meeting place because it is located across the street from the Government House (Pink House) and for being a historical and traditional place for demonstrations.

On April 30, the fourteen Mothers that met at the church went to the Plaza, and as time went by, the number of Mothers increased based on the "disappearances". The presence of the Mothers in the Plaza was known through word of mouth, given that the press did not acknowledge any "desaparecidos" or missing persons, which determined no need for Mothers of the disappeared.

At the beginning, the meetings were on Thursdays from 3:30pm to 4pm, for being a day and time in which many people were passing through the Plaza. The Mothers stood together near the "Pirámide de Mayo" (May Pyramid) located in the middle of the plaza, but were told by policemen that they had to walk because the country was under siege and there was a law that prohibited groups of three or more people to stand together. This is how the walks or marches around the pyramid, ironically a symbol of freedom, originated. The marches are still taking place after all these years.

In order to be identified and recognized, the Mothers began to use a white handkerchief around the head that eventually turned into their symbol. They began as a small group that grew up to being 300 to 400 Mothers and little by little they were joined by fathers, brothers, wives, children and grandsons of the disappeared. Other "Mothers" groups were formed throughout the country.

As time went by, they were widely heard and they got strength and respect, while their prestige grew all over the world. Other Latin American and Asian countries that suffered similar situations witnessed the raise of new groups of Mothers, inspired by the actions of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.

The Mothers began to go overseas to share and disclose the dilemma of the "disappeared". Between 1978-1979 they went to Europe and then to the United States, where they asked for support and requested that Argentina's Dictatorship was isolated.

The Mothers of Plaza of Mayo continue with their marches every Thursday around pyramid of the Plaza de Mayo with the intention of affirming the truth to their demands.