Mothers of the Disappeared Author:Jo Fisher MOTHERS OF THE DISAPPEARED — During the years of military rule in Argentina (1976-83), thousands of people disappeared without trace. As repression intensified, the Mothers of the Disappeared took to the streets in protest. With astonishing courage, they risked their lives to demonstrate, holding placards with pictures of their 'lost' chi... more »ldren, demanding their return.
This book is their story. Its author, Jo Fisher, worked closely with the Mothers and developed a profound sense of solidarity with their struggle. The tale she tells lets us see who these courageous women are. We witness their reactions to the growing polarization of Argentinean society in the 1960s and 70s as the young launched new, and often violent, movements for change. We learn how the Mothers coped with the effects on family life and loyalties, and how they gradually came together to confront the junta. And we see how the restoration of civilian rule under President Alfonsin in 1983, far from putting an end to their task, led to another rejection of their demands for justice, and put additional strain on the women's new-found solidarity.
Jo Fisher shows how these experiences have transformed the women's view of Argentinean society and their place in it. She compares what they went through with the resistance of other Latin American women to dictatorship elsewhere in the continent. And she puts their struggle in the context of modern Argentinian history.
This profoundly sensitive book provides a portrait of Argentina in all its complexity, conflict and human tragedy.« less