Women

Women
   Both as individuals and in groups, women played important parts in the events described in this volume. To be sure, conservative women often collaborated with the military. In Brazil and Chile, for example, women’s groups led demonstrations that raised support for coups, and in Argentina, President Isabel (“Isabelita”) Perón, a right-wing Peronist, declared a state of siege and gave the military a free rein in its war against the guerrillas. At the same time, women were among the military’s victims. Chilean soldiers would slit women’s pants while shouting “In Chile, women wear skirts!” Female prisoners were often sexually abused. And in Argentina, pregnant prisoners would often be kept alive only until they gave birth, their children adopted by military families.
   Many women challenged the regimes. Some joined armed movements, making up a large percentage of urban guerrillas. Others adopted nonviolent protest. In Argentina, for example, women’s groups such as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) and their offshoot, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), were among the first to demonstrate against the military regime. Their status as mothers and grandmothers did not always protect them—Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti, the founder of the Madres, was kidnapped by a death squad from the Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA, Navy Mechanics School) and disappeared, and the Abuelas adopted undercover tactics. In Bolivia, Domitila Barrios de Chungara led other female activists in a monthlong hunger strike that won an amnesty for 340 political and labor leaders. And in Chile, Sola Sierra Henríquez created the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (AFDD, Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared), which organized marches and other acts of nonviolent protest, including the making of arpilleras.
   Among the women writers whose works have “dirty war” themes are Isabel Allende, Aida Bortnik, Diamela Eltit, Griselda Gambaro, and Luisa Valenzuela.
   See also Bachelet, Michelle.

Historical Dictionary of the “Dirty Wars” . . 2010.

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