White headscarves worn by women of the human rights activist group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, embroidered with the names of their 'disappeared' children, symbolising their blankets
Dear Tamara,
How are you doing m'lovely? I hope you are well and happy and enjoyed the recent half term break. :-)
Here's a blog "postcard" for you about women's movements and women's rights in Argentina. As such a strong woman yourself, I'm sure you must appreciate the story of Evita Perón who was such a key political figure in instigating huge changes for women in Argentina.
An interesting indication for me of how strong and long-lasting Evita Perón's political and social impact was is how iconic her image has become, (in my ignorance I actually had it in my mind that she herself was the leading figurehead of Argentina in her time - I clearly didn't watch the film attentively enough!). Evita was in fact the wife of Juan Perón who was president of Argentina between 1946 and1955 and then again 1973 to 1974. In the period in between there were two military dictatorships, interrupted by one civilian government, and during this time the Peronist party was outlawed and Perón exiled. As with all political parties, there are mixed feelings and reports about how good or not his government was, and one bloke I was chatting to at Pacha-mamma was furiously adamant that current politics are damagingly fixated on Peronian principles.
Whatever the opinion about the Peronist party in general, what appears unarguable is the positive impact Evita Perón had on woman's rights. 1945-46 she became the first wife to actively participate alongside her husband on a campaign tour, this itself being a powerful illustration of the changing role of women in politics and business. She campaigned for women's suffrage and on September 23rd 1947 law 13.010 was passed, granting women the right to vote. In the 1951 elections there were women candidates in every office and 3,816,654 women voted for the first time in Argentinean politics. Her social vision was even further reaching and she also established Fundación Eva Perón to facilitate and support women entering the workforce whilst also providing access to women-specific services such as social aid, the Women Employee's Home and the Nursing School amongst others. An inspiring woman indeed.
As well as Evita Perón's image, another symbol connected to women's right that I spotted frequently around the streets of Buenos Aires are these white headscarves that represent the human rights activist group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The association came together in the years of the 'disappearances' of the Dirty War when 14 different mothers who were searching for their missing children first gathered in protest in front of presidential building Casa Rosada in the square Plaza de Mayo. More and more mothers joined them, until there were hundreds of women in the association which gathered in the square every Thursday afternoon for a decade. The scarves are illustrations of the headscarves the mother's wore, embroidered with their missing children's names, symbolising their blankets.
Their association first protested about the disappearances, and then as the years passed, demanded information and looked for admittance by the government that these children had been kidnapped, toured and often killed. Government estimates place the number of unaccounted for at 900 whilst the Mothers believe it to be closer to 30,000, a figure hard to determine because of the secrecy of the abductions. Pregnant 'abducted' women who gave birth in concentration camps had their babies removed from them and these missing children are also counted by the Mothers in their estimate of 30,000. Three of the founding members were themselves 'disappeared'.
After the collapse of the dictatorship in 1983 the Mothers continued to campaign for information and justice, never accepting 'compensation' in the place of admittance of guilt by the government. The association made their final march of resistance around Plaza de Mayo on 26th January 2006 and continue to campaign for social issues in Argentina.
The need for campaigns like that promoted in the poster below, International Day of Nonviolence against Women, suggest that Women's right to equality is still an issue in the process of being addressed, here in Argentina as it also is in Bolivia.
(left) 25 November International Day of Nonviolence towards Women
"A life without violence is the right of all Women" /
(right) International Day of the Woman, "The woman is the true beginning of the continuiity of a town", "Happy Day to all the female Legislative colleagues"
Hearing this demand for acknowledgement of the crimes of the dictatorship, it is clear why socialist murals in Buenos Aires like the one below state that the key to a just and free country are trial and punishment. As the Mothers talk of with their campaign, how can they put the memory of their lost children to rest without the truth of their 'disappearances' being spoken and addressed?
The best tribute if to continue building a country just, free and sovereign/ trial and punishment, painted by Red Sudakas
Evita Perón certainly demonstrated what can be achieved for women rights, and indeed all human rights, through hard work, passion, solidarity and above all, love.
So to you Tamara, one of the strongest women I have the honour of knowing and the pleasure of calling a friend, sending a big hug and a clink of the glass to solidarity and love.
Big love,
:-)
p.s. I also a peculiar but brilliant dream a week or so ago where you and I were creating 'body print' portraits - we were painting ink onto our faces (for some reason I particularly remember the concentration of painting my eyebrows, the ink coagulating along the hairs) and then pressing against thickish paper, rubbing and rubbing the paper to get a print. When we looked at the results we then had this very clear 'eureka' moment of deciding to draw finely into the ink prints and colour them to look like flat and tabbed anatomical diagrams.... intriguing... I'm curious to experiment with this technique and see what comes from it. You in?
:-)
x
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