ABSTRACT
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are acknowledged nationally and internationally to be at the forefront of the contemporary Argentine human rights movement. Founded in 1977 by women whose children were disappeared during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” the Mothers’ efforts have served as a moral compass of the era of democracy that was reinitiated in 1983. Histories of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo tend to focus on the first two decades of the movement, from the Mothers’ inception in the 1970s up through the disappointments of the transition to democracy, disappointments that culminated in the pardons of military leaders in the early 1990s. This essay reconstructs the history of the Mothers with an eye to the present and future of the movement. It examines the recently reopened trials of military leaders and the human rights policies enacted during the governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner (2003–15). As the essay shows, this history remains open-ended; the narrative is now reframed by the new triumphs and challenges that the movement has confronted over the first decade of this century.
