Taylor -- Making a Spectacle -- Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1)

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are an Argentinian women's resistance movement.
They protest the human rights violations committed by the military dictatorship (1976-1983) during the "Dirty War."
The "Dirty War" resulted in the abduction, torture, and disappearance of 30,000 Argentinians.
The Mothers stage weekly demonstrations every Thursday at 3:30 pm in the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires.
- They wear white head scarves and carry placards with images of their missing children.
- They demand "Aparición con vida" (that their children be brought back alive).
The Plaza de Mayo is a central square in Argentina, located in Buenos Aires' financial district, facing the presidential palace.
The Mothers' spectacle has become an icon of women's resistance movements, inspiring similar organizations in Latin America.
The article focuses on how the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo resisted the military juntas that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Spectacle and National Identity

The Mothers' spectacle challenged the military junta's spectacle of national identity and cohesion.
The military junta persecuted and killed its opposition in the name of Christian, western, and family values.
The Mothers exposed the violence and hypocrisy behind the junta's "process of national reorganization."
In March 1976, the junta declared itself the "supreme organ of the Nation" and sought to transform the Argentine masses into a masculine "national being."
The military aimed to revive the "infirm" Argentine state, viewing itself as a disciplined, masculine body.
The junta's display aimed to create a new social order: all-male, Catholic, and hierarchical.
The military presented itself as a unified entity, embodying national aspirations of grandeur.
The junta used the maternal image of the Patria (Motherland) to justify its violence.
They claimed the Patria was being "raped" and "infiltrated" by enemies, necessitating military intervention.
Patria originates from Padre (father) and represents a masculinist version of maternity (patriarchy in drag).
The junta split the notion of the feminine into "good" (pure motherhood, non-political) and "bad" (active, subversive) women.
Women who did not stay home were targeted as enemies of the State.

The Role of Women and the Media

During the Dirty War, some mothers supported the junta's mission and its control over the public good.
The League of Mothers of Families advocated for education that strengthened traditional and Christian values.
The media promoted "good" women who were happy at home, caring for their children.
Women were warned that their children were in danger of being lured into subversion by guerrillas.
The junta demanded that women prioritize State interests over family bonds.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo protested the military's threat to their children in Argentina's most public space.
The Mothers manipulated the maternal image controlled by the State, claiming their maternal duties drove them to seek their children.

Formation and Early Actions of the Mothers' Movement

In 1977, fourteen women gathered in the Plaza de Mayo to demand information about their missing children.
They had met while searching in government offices, prisons, and courts.
The women identified as a group and called themselves the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo."
They wore white head kerchiefs to recognize each other and gain recognition from onlookers.
Visibility was crucial for political effectiveness and survival.
The role of "mother" initially offered the women some security.
The junta dismissed the Mothers as "crazy old women" but also threatened them.
The Mothers continued to walk around the obelisk in the Plaza every Thursday afternoon.
The number of women grew, representing different social classes and religious groups.
Public response was mixed; many Argentines tried to ignore them, while some offered support.
In October 1977, the Mothers placed an ad in La Prensa demanding the "truth" about 237 disappeared persons.
They included pictures of the victims along with the signatures and ID numbers of the women in the movement.
The police dispersed the women, using tear gas and bullets, and detaining over 300 for questioning.
Foreign correspondents covering the event were also arrested.

International Attention and Repression

News of the Mothers and their anti-junta activities spread internationally.
The Mothers received public recognition and financial support from human rights groups in various countries.
Amnesty International sent a mission to Argentina and President Carter sent Patricia Derian to investigate human rights abuses.
The United States cut military aid to Argentina and canceled loans.
The junta infiltrated the Mothers' organization, kidnapping and disappearing twelve women, including their leader and two French nuns.
Despite the danger, the Mothers returned to the Plaza.
In 1979, the Mothers were banned from the Plaza and stood around it, staging raids to remind the world of their presence.
The Mothers testified before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in Buenos Aires.
The junta launched a counter-attack, mimicking the Mothers' visual strategies, using slogans and walking billboards.
The Mothers formed the Association of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and returned to the Plaza in January 1980, risking death.

Performance of Motherhood and Political Statements

The Mothers consciously modeled themselves on the Virgin Mary, using traditionally acceptable "feminine" qualities.
They initially marched as if in ritual procession, with serious faces and eyes turned upward in supplication.
While they affirmed their passivity and powerlessness they were also making daring political moves.
The women's public exposure resulted in ostracism from the Church.
The Church Leaders did not condone their anger, protest or seeds of hate towards losing their sons.
Over time, the Mothers' notion of motherhood became political rather than biological.
They considered themselves the mothers of all the disappeared.
Their spectacles became larger and more dramatic, including massive demonstrations and marches.
Even with the return of a democratic government, their demands for information and justice had not been addressed.
The Mothers staged the March for Human Rights as a procession of masks.
The Mothers inverted the focus of the military spectacle by making the invisible (domestic women, subversives) visible.

Confrontation with the Military and Symbolic Resistance

The conflict between the Mothers and the military centered on the physical and symbolic location of the missing body.
The military attempted to erase their victims by burying them in unmarked graves; the Mothers insisted that the disappeared had names and faces.
The Mothers inscribed the time and dates of the disappearances, contrasting the military's attempt at historical forgetting.
The Mothers emphasized community and family ties, challenging the junta's image of a lone, heroic male.
The Mothers' circular movements around the Plaza reflected egalitarianism and communication, opposing the military's performance of hierarchy.
The Mothers presented themselves as elderly, physically weak, and sexually non-active women, yet resisted brutal treatment.
They marked their presence by painting white kerchiefs around the circle where they usually walked.
The Mothers orchestrated the return of the repressed filling Buenos Aires once again, in public spaces, with demonstrators. Terror-ized population gradually followed the Mothers' example and took to the streets.

Internal Divisions and Long-Term Effects

Many Mothers admitted losing hope of finding their children alive, creating a tension between the biological death of their children and the political issue of disappearance.
The dilemma of whether to claim the dead bodies, accept compensation, or continue the political movement split the group in two by 1986.
The Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, led by Hebe de Bonafini, continue to demand "Aparición con vida" for all the disappeared.
The Linea Fundadora, while accepting that their children are dead, continues to work to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Both groups are made up of women in their 60s and 70s and continue to march around the Plaza de Mayo.
During the Dirty War, the Mothers provided a model of resistance and a network of communication and support.
The Mothers raised money to help families travel and visit political prisoners, and contributed to raising the children of the disappeared.
Some argue that the Mothers changed little in Argentina, as there were fewer women in positions of power after the Dirty War.
The Mothers' grass-roots movement may have lacked lasting organizational structure.
The women called international attention to civil rights violations in Argentina.
The downfall of the military came with its defeat in the Falklands War.
Though Carter cut aid to Argentina, the United States under Reagan increased its support of the armed forces.

Contradictions and Feminist Perspectives

The Mothers' movement attacked the legitimacy of the military but left a restrictive patriarchal system unchallenged.
The Mothers won political power but claimed not to want it for themselves, only for their children.
Their shared struggle bridged class and religious barriers, but they have not politicized those issues.
They recognize women are doubly oppressed but stop short of identifying as feminists.
The Mothers left the confines of their homes but have not altered the politics of the home.
Their political activity estranged many of them from surviving family members.
Having left home, they established a new casa (home) for their new family, continuing their unpaid labor and political activity.

Performance of Motherhood and Social Change

The Mothers' performance of motherhood can be distinguished from essentialist notions of motherhood.
Motherhood was already socialized and politicized in their patriarchal society.
There were conflicting performances of motherhood: one supporting the military's version of social order, the other defying it.
The Mothers' movement originated when the women consciously decided to protest and agitate as mothers, shifting the site of their enactment to the public sphere.
The role of mother was attractive because it was viable and practical, offering legitimacy and visibility.
The Mothers redefined the meaning of "mothers," "family," and "home" in a patriarchal society.
Mothers are now freer to act, be bold, independent, political, and outraged.
Their new "home" is a negotiated space; their new "family" founded on political rather than biological ties.
Their political activism made new people out of the Mothers, people with options.

The Performative Aspect of the Mothers' Activism

The performative aspect of their movement was politically vital and personally liberating.
Demonstrations offered the women a way of coping with their grief and channeling it into life-affirming action.
The ritualistic and "restored" nature of their demonstrations drew public attention and provided them with financial and moral support.
The "restored" nature of their public action restored the disappeared into the public sphere, making visible their absence.
By bringing motherhood out of the domestic sphere, the Mothers showed up the predicament facing women in Argentina and the world over.
Their transgression of traditional roles made evident how restrictive and oppressive those roles had been.
Their performance of mothers as activists challenged traditional maternal roles and called attention to the fact that motherhood was a social construct.

Spectators and Witnesses

The Mothers' performance challenged onlookers to either applaud their actions or look away.
Some spectators were able to respond as reliable audiences/witnesses.
The Mothers' efficacy and survival relied on capturing the attention of spectators.
The Mothers continue their walk around the Plaza every Thursday afternoon.
They vow to do so until the government explains what happened to their missing children and brings their murderers to justice.
There has been no closure and the drama of disappearance is not over.