Argentina : The 500 Stolen Babies of the Dictatorship
(eVideo)

English

Originally released by CINEFETE, 2012.

Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on April 30, 2018.

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They are Rosa, Estela, Chicha, Elsa, Chela, and Jorgelina. All are ordinary women who, together for the last 35 long years, have fought tirelessly against the Argentine military disctatorship, travelling the world to publicize their cause. They have become symbols of the struggle against oppression, known worldwide as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. In 1976, a military coup overthrew the government in Argentina. There followed eight years of terrible repression against opponents of the regime. Politicians, students, and workers were sequestered, tortured, and murdered with impunity. The number of missing was estimated at 30,000 during those dark years. Young pregnant women did not escape the abuses of the military. Shackled and hooded, they gave birth in detention centers such as ESMA (Mechanical School of the Navy, in the heart of Buenos Aires). Babies were taken away at birth: Five hundred babies were torn from their mothers' arms by the torturers. The others were given to "good Christian families." To find 107 of these children, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo not only challenged the totalitarian regime but also used genetic identification and the families' blood as evidence. Who could ever have imagined that the “Blood of Angels” would enable justice to be done after decades of official silence and amnesia? Argentina: The 500 Stolen Babies of the Dictatorship tells their story and follows the unique trial in Buenos Aires that these extraordinary Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo brought about.

9 - 12, Academic/AP

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