Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity

Between the 1930s and 1970s there was period of turmoil in Argentina known as the dirty war. With the overthrow of the democratic government, the regime in power went after any dissident voices and liberal activist. People in Argentina simply disappeared and some were drugged and thrown off airplanes. Babies were born to the captors and reassigned to other families. This began a group known as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo where the grandmothers were come searching for their love ones. Dr. C.A. Tuggle had traveled to Argentina and researched the "dirty war." What he found was there was an underline story that needed to be told. With help with his family and colleagues they took on the project of documenting this issue. It resulted in the documentary "Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo" and it was screened at the Carter Center in Atlanta. President Carter noted that when he got to office he became aware of the human right violations in Argentina. Previous administrations had simply looked the other way and were in bed with the banana growers and business. Carter held a firm line of a policy of Human Rights. He believed that "America did not invent human rights, but human rights invented America." His policy was to be carried out by all his diplomatic representatives. Carter noted that today there is only one dictator in the Western Hemisphere (Fidel Castro) and that we must push forward the issue of Human Rights. Back in the 70s the concern was communism, and no matter what you did, if you were communist you were enemy number one. Today communism has become interchanged with terrorism and when we define terrorist, we take a hard line against them. Anyone that is against them is our friend, regardless of what they may do in their own country. The movie points out some examples of the lost babies that were reunited with their biological families and the challenge to move forward. Tex Harris who was a political officer at the time commended Carter that he was the "coach of the team" and his efforts to place human rights at the center of the US foreign policy at the height of the cold war was a tough stance but today much appreciated.