Argentina

Link
So beautiful. I love her wrinkles.

Population: 41,343,201
Capital: Buenos Aires
Language: Spanish
Religion: nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing)
Life Expectancy: 76.76 years
GDP per Capita: $14,700


• In just Buenos Aires province, police receive an average of 53 complaints of domestic violence a day
• 103 women die from breast cancer each week
• According to this website “Argentina has more plastic surgeries and non-surgical procedures than all but 12 countries in the world. That’s the conclusion of a new global survey carried out by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ISAPS. Last year Argentines had 132,486 plastic surgeries; according to the survey. Argentina has an estimated 517 plastic surgeons, putting in 11th place worldwide. That’s more than France (464), Canada (425) and the U.K. (274).


For Argentina I want to focus on one group of women specifically, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a human rights activist organization that has fought for over thirty years for the right to re-connect with their abducted children. The mothers' children were abducted by Argentine government agents during the "Dirty War" 1976-1983, many of the children were tortured and killed. "The military has admitted that over 9,000 of those kidnapped are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number is closer to 30,000" (link)


The 14 founders of the association include, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin and Sra. De Caimi. These brave 14 women started the demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, on 30 April 1977. Since then the women have continued to gather and protest wearing white head scarves with their children's names embroidered on them every Thursday afternoon.


The women have continued to raise awareness and hold on to the memory of their lost children throughout the years by the creation of an independent university, bookstore, library and cultural center. Read more here


Here is another link to the mothers’ website.


Below is a well done video of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, it will at least give you some sort of idea of what it looks like

Also here is the song that U2 wrote about the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo—Its called Mothers of the disappeared.

Thanks for reading!