Remarks on the Exhibit on the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
UN Headquarters , New York, 23 September 2008 There are few
events in the collective history of Latin America that are as
dark as those that inspired this exhibit. During the 70’s and
80’s our region was held captive under a vast network of
military dictatorships. Regional cooperation was limited to
those operations coordinated by intelligence operatives. Death
squads methodically terrorized, kidnapped and murdered thousands
of our brothers and sisters: union organizers, farmers, workers,
politicians, artists, teachers and professors. A generation was
exiled. And it is taking another generation to restore the
losses to the continent. Their creativity, solidarity and vision
may well have placed Latin America on the road to economic and
social justice. We are still struggling to overcome the shameful
legacy of betrayal and loss. But even in the darkest moments,
when most were immobilized by fear, the mothers and grandmothers
who gathered in the Pla