Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, AM Voz de las Madres
On March 24th, I joined the thousands of people converging on Plaza de Mayo, the central square of Buenos Aires, to march and remember. Rows and rows of different community organizations held bright colored banners, pounded bass drums and set off firecrackers.
A number of radio stations set up remote broadcasting, transmitting the event to air right from the street. From the stage in the center of the plaza, words of different speakers bounced through the crowd, declaring “Nunca Mas” — never again.
March 24th marks The Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia, a national holiday commemorating the victims of the military dictatorship that controlled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.
Speedy Argentinian history lesson: in 1976 a military junta lead by Jorge Rafael Videla took control of the government and basically shut down freedom of speech, imposed censorship, and incited violence against citizens.
The history of the dictatorship is long and brutal, and among the crimes committed by is the torture and killing of 30,000 activists, political leaders and students who held views and protested against the government, known as Desaparecidos (because when their family members demanded answers to where their children were, the government replied that they had just “disappeared”). More quick info from wikipedia.
The most well-known organization commemorating these victims of the military dictatorship is called the La Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo. It’s an amazing organization with a fascinating history — started by the mothers of Desaparecidos who started protesting in the Plaza de Mayo wearing white head scarves embroidered with the names of their children. They organize the speakers and performers for the Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia. The organization has a university, a library — and a radio station.
Two days after the Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia, I rode my bike to visit AM La Voz de las Madres, not that far from the Plaza de Mayo. The station broadcasts news and music from the basement of a skyscraper in the center of the city. I visited to watch a morning talk show.
Here’s what the control room looks like:
Observing the morning talk show, I got to watch the news team throwing fast-paced commentary back and forth. Two days after the march on the Plaza de Mayo, there were interviews about the event on the air and some rebroadcasts of the event — and AM La Voz de Las Madres was one of the radio stations broadcasting live from the plaza.
Chatting with one of the staff members, she told me the purpose of the radio station is to broadcast content that reflects the mission of the organization of Las Madres. When I asked what that mission was, she told me, “To open heads. But it’s difficult to open heads.”
The staff of the radio station aren’t the mothers of Desaparecidos, but are radio professionals hired by the organization. And it seems like they are working hard to reflect the mission of La Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, preserve the memory of the injustices of the dictatorship, and to open heads.
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