Book Review: Argentina: Enchantment of the World

Iguazu

Argentina: Enchantment of the World,

This is a book which put out by scholastic in 2007 and written by Jean Blashfield  It is a fairly good geography of Argentina.  I has plenty of pictures which talk about some of the wonders in Argentina.  It talks of the water falls, and the high mountains, of the different zones.  One of the things I did not know about was the cave of the hands in Southern Argentina.  This impressed me.  (It is a theme at the first of the movie Croods where they imply the hand means “no”.) 

This book is very thorough, from talk about the animals, to the people, to the landscape, to the history.  It talks about everyday life, including mate, alfajores, carne asado and empanadas.  It misses talking about dulce, but it does point out that over 90 percent of Argentines are of European descent.  The mestizo and indigenous populations are small.  It mentions a large middle class, but then a third of the population live in poverty.   It mentions the slums or villas.  It talks about the love of sport, including soccer and polo.  

ON thing I didn’t like about the book is its portrayal of Che Guevara as a hero.  It only says he thought Communism was the way to go, and does not mention  the in fact he was affiliated with a murderous  dictatorship and murdered people himself. 

It does an adequate job of talking about los desaparecidos (the disappeared) and the history of dictatorships in Argentina.  It includes a little piece on butch Cassidy, which also seems out of place.  It also handles the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) War.

Movie Review: ****The Disappeared About Argentina's Dirty War

This movie is a very bad adoption story.  "The Disappeared" is the story about a baby, whose parents were killed when he was five months old.  It is about Argentina's Dirty War, and about "The Disappeared."  It is directed by Peter Sanders.  I watched it through Netflix DVD.  It was in Spanish with subtitles.  It is suspected as many as 400 babies were taken, and adopted by other families.  Of these 77 have been discovered.

Horacio with his mother as a baby

http://www.thedisappearedmovie.com/english.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3585031.stm
Horacio, did not know who he was until he was 25.  He had been adopted as a baby.  However he had inklings he did not fit in.  His physical appearance was different from that of his birth family.  He did not really feel loved. As a result, as a teenager he was depressed.  He contemplated suicide, he had thoughts of throwing himself off an upper story apartment.  It wasn't until when he was 25 that his girlfriend encouraged him to seek out his past, and to resolve his doubts.

Horacio went to a program called "Las Abuelas" (The Grandmothers.)  Through this program they were able to perform DNA testing, and prove that he was in fact the birth child of a couple from "The Disappeared."  Before receiving the results of the DNA testing he confronted his adoptive parents (or kidnapper parents depending on where your sympathies lie) and asked them, "Am I your son?"  The answer was, "In our hearts yes, but biologically no."

With the DNA results Horacio was able to piece together his history.  His parents had been married, put were also at odds with the government.  His parents were heavily involved in social causes, and perhaps they also were part of the Monteneros (radical Peronista group) or perhaps just caught in the government sweep of radicals which was going on at the time.  Horacio's father, Adriano, was killed in Cordoba.  His mother, in Buenos Aires, went into hiding.  When the baby was five months old, there was a military action against the apartment where she and others were hid.  The military placed a bomb in the stairwell and destroyed most of the apartment.  They also shot at them from across the street.  Lina,  Horacio's mother, put him in a cupboard and covered him with blankets and pillows and mattress.  This saved his life.  She was killed received eight wounds.  Her baby was uninjured.  He was taken by Lt Col Hernan Tefzlaff.  His brother-in-law wanted to adopt a baby.  However in the end his wife did not want the child.  The maid of Colonel Tefzlaff stepped forward and asked if she could take the baby.  There was the chance he would have been disposed of otherwise.  This took place, however, in an air of secrecy and fear.  

This secrecy was broken after 25 years.  Horacio was able to re-embrace his birth family, cousins and uncles.  His greatest regret, is that all of his grandparents had passed away, the last five years earlier.  One of his grandmothers had committed suicide, perhaps partially from the  trauma of these events.  He has uncles and aunts and cousins, who have a similar appearance.  He has been able to discover the remains of his parents, and removed then from unmarked graves or coffins, and give them proper funerals.  He now works with Las Abuelas, reaching out to others who may be "stolen" orphans.  

As for his adoptive parents, the results have not been so pleasant.  His adoptive mother has a broken heart over the son she raised as her own, with her daughter, who now does not want any thing to do with her.  Also she and her husband both spent time in jail, as they hid the truth, and falsified documents so as to be able to adopt Horacio (Cesar is his adoptive name.)  Living with a secret, even if there is an air of danger because of the military situation, is not healthy for anyone.

In applying this story to our adoption story, Tony has turned five this week.  His physical characteristics are nothing like ours.  Tony is tall and skinny, while both Sheri and I are short and plump (polite word.)  Tony's hair is curly, and the only curly hair in our family is through in-laws and cousins (Charity's Anthony and Dianna's Mark.)  However we love Tony every day, and let him know to us he is a miracle and a blessing.  We love him, and try to tell him these in word and action.  He knows he is adopted, and because of this he is special.  We have shared pictures of his birth parents with him from "Facebook."  We also share notes and messages they pass along.  However we also feel we are walking a type rope.  How do you introduce physical contact?  How do you make sure you baby is same emotionally and physically?  These are questions we are still answering as we live this life.

A History of Argentina's Dirty War

Los Desaparecidos

http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2013/11/movie-review-disappeared.html
I recently watched a movie about Argentina's Dirty War "The Disappeared" about Argentina's Dirty War Los Desaparecidos and the babies of Los Desaparecidos who were adopted by families affiliated with the military government.  This movie is available through Netflix DVD and I watched it in Spanish with English subtitles. It is directed by Peter Sanders.  It is estimated up to 30,000 people disappeared and as many as 400 babies were taken and adopted by others.  Of these babies, 77 have been discovered. 
The dirty war actually started before the military government took over in March of 1976 as the result of a military coup.  Isabel Peron was president before this.  There had been a period of significant terrorist activity in the country.  Some consider the dirty to have started as early as 1956.  In 1956, Peronists attempted a coup against the government, under President Aramburu.  The coup failed, but as a result General Juan Jose Valle was executed.  Many consider him the first "Disappeared."  Vigilantes and Terrorists, in the name of communist insurrection and also in the name of radical Peronists called Montoneros, created an atmosphere were terrorist attacks were quite common. In 1970 the Montoneros kidnapped the ex president Aramburu, and then murdered him.  The government carried out a war with Peronist extremists called the Montoneros and the communist terrorists.  When the military government took over, they became for focused on putting down the insurrection.  However the sweep of the government, in order to get as many insurrectionists as they could, swept into organizations and families from which perhaps extremists had come, but themselves were not involved.  They suspended civil rights, and many were tortured and murdered.  Some were drugged, and then thrown from planes into the river, Rio de la Plata, to drown.  Many were imprisoned at a naval hospital at Campo de Mayo where they were tortured.  Civil rights groups put the number of disappeared as high as 30,000.  Others have the number as low as 10,000.  There were 11,000 cases for which the government later paid retribution.  The communist organizations indicate 5000 of their number were killed, and 5000 Montoneros were also killed.  That leaves up to 20,000 killed who were not directly affiliated with these organizations.  It also depends on when you start counting the disappeared.  Others fled the country in fear, leaving behind their property and homes.  Others were tortured but then returned home (I think these were few.)
The military government ruled from 1976 to 1983.  After losing the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) War the government was vulnerable.  Finally there were elections in 1983 with President Alfonsin elected.  He issued a pardon against those involved in the dirty war, but since other presidents have reversed this policy.  However very few of those involved, torturers and murders, have ever been tried or jailed.

Argentina's Dirty War

I usually don't delve outside of U.S. history, but since I was living in Argentina during this period, decided I would explore this theme.  I wrote about Dr. Santillan in another blog , who was caught up in this conflict.
http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/01/argentina-dr-santillan-los.html
The dirty war, probably started before the taking over of the military government in Argentina, but became more intense during this time.  It is estimated rebels and terrorists killed over 1500 people during this time.  In response to this, the government made war against a wide swath of people.  " The "ideological war" doctrine of the Argentine military focused on eliminating the social base of insurgency. In practice that meant liquidating many middle class students, intellectuals and labor organizers, most of whom had few ties to the guerrillas. By the end of the 1970s, such tactics had suppressed the insurgents, but Argentina suffered terribly from the ends-justifies-the-means attitude adopted by the military.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Argentina#The_National_Reorganization_Process_.281976-1983.29

Official estimates but the umber of people who disappeared during this period as over 11, 000.  Civil Rights groups put the number at 30,000.  Many of those who disappeared were drugged, taken in an airplane ride over the ocean, and pushed out where their bodies would never be recovered.  In this way the government could deny responsibility. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desaparecidos#Argentina
 Because mos of the disappeared were left without voice, being taken in the middle of the night, subject to torture, and never heard from again, documentation and records are hard to come by.  Those kept by the military were destroyed after the Falkland Islands War.  The website: "The Vanished Gallery" is atempting to give voice to some of the disappeared.
http://www.yendor.com/vanished/index.html