Those Who Die for Life Cannot be Called Dead: Women and Human Rights Protest in Latin America
Author(s)
Schirmer, Jennifer
Abstract
The three human rights resistance groups, Plaza de Mayo Mothers (“Madres”) in Argentina, the Mutual Support Group (“GAM”) in Guatemala, and the Group of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared in Chile, all share evolutions that demonstrate why such movements are led by women, why they have taken particular actions, and how these groups have managed to endure. The experiences of these groups reveal the ironic circumstances created by the repressive state. The state valorizes motherhood and the family, but it simultaneously undertakes systematic repression through the use of forced disappearance. As a result, the repressive state has found itself confronting new forms of resistance based precisely on motherhood and the family.
