Madres de Plaza de Mayo

Description

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association founded in 1977 by mothers of people who disappeared under the military dictatorship.

Since April 1977 the Mothers have marched every Thursday in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, demanding to know the fate of their missing children. They wore white headscarves, originally made from cloth diapers, embroidered with their children’s names as a symbol of their demand for proof that their children were still alive. Their public protests drew international attention to the disappearances and to the crimes of the dictatorship.

The organization pressed for trials and sentences of the officials responsible for the Dirty War of 1976 to 1983. Its members received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for this work. Today it continues as the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, one of two groups descended from the original movement, and remains active in human rights advocacy in Argentina and Latin America.

The association distributes its own documentary film about its history for free public screenings by community and political groups. It also runs fundraising campaigns, including one that sent symbolic bricks from its damaged headquarters to international allies, to support its continued work.