Between 1976 and 1983, tens of thousands of people disappeared in Argentina. Their disappearance was intended to create a state of terror that only a few dared to defy. But who were the “disappeared” and what did they have to endure?
The majority of the “disappeared” were between twenty and thirty years old. They were captured and often tortured in secret detention centers before being killed. Many were members of left-wing political organizations – militant activists – others were trade unionists, journalists, students, artists and teachers.
Among them were young parents, including pregnant women. About 500 babies were born in captivity, stolen by the military government from their imprisoned mothers and given to adoptive families who raised the children without knowing anything about their biological identity.
The mothers of the “disappeared” – the babies’ grandmothers, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo – wore white headscarves and circled the Plaza de Mayo, defying the regime and demanding the truth. Almost fifty years later, the search for their adult grandchildren continues.
This intergenerational wound is explored through the lens of a grieving grandmother and a North American adopted child in my historical novel. The Disappeared.
Here are seven books that reflect the lives, experiences and long-term grief of those who lost their lives in Argentina’s so-called “dirty war.”
The small school by Alicia Partnoy
Argentine poet, author, human rights activist, translator and professor Alicia Partnoy was one of an estimated thirty thousand people captured during the Argentine dictatorship. In 1977, she was torn from her home and her 18-month-old daughter, who was left with relatives. Her memoirs, translated from Spanish, are a literary account of the months she spent blindfolded in a secret prison called The School (The Little School) in Bahia Blanca, where she was tortured and mistreated and witnessed death and birth. The small school is a survivor’s memory of unfathomable strength and human spirit.
The Rabbit House by Laura Alcoba
“I’m only seven years old, but they explained everything to me. I won’t say a word.”
From the perspective of a little girl who became a target of the dictatorship because of her parents’ ideology, Laura Alcoba recounts her childhood memories of hiding in a small house on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where a resistance movement set up a secret printing press behind the facade of a rabbit farm. The Rabbit HouseLaura’s world is full of forbidden conversations, secret rules and – despite all adversities – unbroken miracles.
My name is Victoria by Victoria Donda
Analía grew up in a middle-class suburb of Buenos Aires, but her strong political beliefs and ideals were always in direct conflict with those of her parents, making her the black sheep of her family. Then she learned the truth about her origins: she was the child of “disappeared” parents, and her uncle, a soldier, played a devastating role in their deaths and her adoption. In My name is VictoriaVictoria Donda reclaims both her name and her identity, thrives in the truth, and establishes a successful leadership position as the youngest member of the Argentine National Congress.
The Ministry for Special Cases by Nathan Englander
Under the ever-darkening shadow of the dictatorship, Kaddish Poznan maintains the Jewish cemetery with great care, despite being ostracized by the Jewish community because of his bad past. Kaddish’s son Pato wants nothing to do with his father either. As the junta’s power extends to the Poznan family, Kaddish and his wife Lillian wrestle with whether to give in or circumvent an impossible bureaucracy to find Pato. An endearing story about a father’s complicated love for his son and the grief of a family and a nation.
Imagine Argentina by Lawrence Thornton
In this classic magical realism story told by a family friend, Cecilia Rueda is captured after writing an article about the dictatorship. Her husband Carlos has premonitions and waking dreams that reveal the fate of his wife and other disappeared. Carlos begins holding gardening sessions to answer the question he shares with so many—what happened to their “missing” loved ones?—but his visions make him the victim of a betrayal that leads to the disappearance of his teenage daughter Teresa. Carlos wrestles with his own clarity while clinging to the hope of being reunited with his family.
Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel
As a medical student in 1976, Tomás Oriilla would do anything for his childhood sweetheart Isabel – even if her ideological zeal puts them both in danger. Ten years later, Tomás is in exile and lives in New York as Thomas Shore. He is called back to Buenos Aires, where the ghosts of the disappeared force him to confront the decisions he once made in the name of love. A haunting journey into the past. Hades explores love and complicity through the distorted and surreal lens of individual and collective memory.
Departure at dawn by Gloria Lise
Jorge Videla is about to take over the helm of the Argentine military dictatorship. Berta witnesses her lover being brutally thrown to his death by a young man. junta Soldiers. Berta is convinced that she is being targeted by the government and first flees to her aunt. Then she flees deeper into the country to hide with family members on a remote farm. There, Berta must survive among diverse and poetically portrayed characters and not “disappear”.
