*Many of the quotes used are from interviews with the Mothers. In these cases, the name of the Mother appears after the citation information in the notes.

**The lack of capitalization of the word "church" in this and all subsequent quotations is that of the original author.

1. The "dirty war" consisted of the military junta's efforts to destroy all opposition or suspected opposition to its policies. At the time the junta assumed power, guerilla activities on the part of the political left had become commonplace. It was this subversive guerilla activity that the junta hoped to eliminate by any means necessary. More than this, General Jorge Videla, the army's representative in the original junta, expressed the junta's plan to eliminate even "subversive thought," and any kind of dissent became suspect, no matter how mild. The junta did not want to damage Argentina's image in the eyes of the world, however, so the elimination of these so-called subversives had to be carried out with the utmost secrecy. Thus the disappearances began, and continued through 1979. The military began losing power after that, and the junta was ousted in 1983. Ronald Dworkin says, "Very few of those who disappeared had any connection to the left-wing terrorist groups whose activities provided the original excuse for the military coup." See Introduction, Nunca Más: The Report of the Argentine National Commission on the Disappeared (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986), xiv.Back

2. Jo Fisher, Mothers of the Disappeared (Boston: South End Press, 1989). It would be more accurate to say that this is one of the first books in English. An earlier work, Jean-Pierre Bousquet's Las Locas de la Plaza de Mayo (1980), is unavailable.Back

3. Some of what Fisher lists as "Secondary Source Material" actually consists of primary documents, such as Boletines de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo (1981-1984) and Extracts from the Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Argentina 6-15 November 1976. Other secondary sources include Historia de Vida by Hebe de Bonafini, the above-mentioned Las Locas de la Plaza de Mayo, and the Simpson and Bennett book, The Disappeared. See Fisher's bibliography, 160-163.Back

4. Matilde Mellibovsky, Circle of Love Over Death: Testimonies of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1997), introduction, x.Back

5. Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1994), 2.Back

6. Fisher, preface, ix.Back

7. Mellibovsky, introduction, x.Back

8. Bouvard, 65.Back

9. Fisher, 45, Dora de Bazze, 57, Rita De Ponce, 49, 91, Hebe de Bonafini.Back

10. Mellibovsky, 84. Back

11. ibid, 77, Enriqueta Maroni.Back

12. ibid., 116.Back

13. ibid., 53.Back

14. Bouvard, 67.Back

15. Bouvard, 68, 77-78. Azucena was not interviewed for any of the books; she was abducted on December 10, 1977 and disappeared. See Fisher, 68-70, for the Mothers' account of her abduction. The junta's kidnapping of Azucena ironically legitimized the Mothers by recognizing in them a legitimate threat to their power. Far from destroying the movement, Azucena's disappearance served to galvanize the Mothers and consolidate their strength. Fisher notes that after that episode, "The women were no longer locas. Their defence (sic) of the lives of their children had become a collective assertion of the right to life which challenged the very basis of the military's system of repression." 70. For additional details of the kidnapping, which included the abduction of two French nuns and led to an international investigation of the junta's activities, see Iain Guest, Behind the Disappearances: Argentina's Dirty War Against Human Rights and the United Nations (Philadelphia: Univ of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), 59-62.Back

16. General Jorge Videla was the army's representative in the original three-man military junta. At the time of the early disappearances, his role in the "dirty war" was not yet known.Back

17. Bouvard, 62.Back

18. John Simpson and Jana Bennett, The Disappeared and the Mothers of the Plaza (New York: St. Martin's Press), 1985, 176-177.Back

19. Fisher, 22-23, Rita de Krichmar, 100, Marina de Curia.Back

20. Mellibovksy, 78.Back

21. Fisher, 53, Dora de Bazze, 111, Aída de Suárez.Back

22. Fisher, 111, Hebe de Bonafini. de Bonafini later says, "The church hasn't changed at all. . . . I always say the boots [of the military] and the priests' gowns are the coups of tomorrow. They always work together to repress the people." 145. For a more objective but no less damning description of the Church's failure to act, see Simpson and Bennett, 171-176. For an description of clergymen, nuns, and lay Catholics who were themselves terrorized or disappeared, see Nunca Más, 337-354.Back

23. Fisher, 60.Back

24. Fisher, 60, Aída de Suárez, Marina de Curia.Back

25. Ibid.Back

26. Fisher, 97, Laura de Rivelli, 59, Aída de Suárez, María del Rosario, Hebe de Bonafini.Back

27. Bouvard, 182. When the Mothers first began to meet in the Plaza, they wanted to make sure they could recognize each other. Not all of the women owned or could afford a mantilla, but all had a pañuelo (diaper) in the house. They decided to wear them as scarves for identification purposes. The symbol of the pañuelo has taken on a political life of its own. Hebe de Bonafini says, "the pañuelo continues to be the condemnation of torture, rape, theft, and assassination in this country." Ibid. Back

28. Bouvard, 192. Back

29. Bouvard, 181.Back

30. Mary Field Belenky et al, Women's Ways of Knowing (San Francisco: Basic Books, 1986), 68-75.Back

31. Bouvard, 185. Fisher, 149, María del Rosario. See also Bouvard, 175. Back

32. Mellibovsky, 5.Back

Works Cited