them, apart from dubbing them ‘the madwomen of the Plaza de Mayo.’ While the dictatorship lasted, they never met with them or gave any details about their children. It was only after Argentina’s return to civilian rule in 1984, under President Raúl Alfonsín, that some of the truth gradually and grudgingly emerged at the trials of the military junta leaders.

The mothers continued to press their demands, although in 1986 one of the original founders of the movement, Hebe de Bonafini split from the group and formed her own ‘Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’ with a broader political agenda.

Mothers with President Nestor Kirchner

Although the Mothers had won respect inside Argentina and were well-known internationally, it was not until Nestor Kirchner and subsequently his wife CristinaFernández de Kirchner were in power from 2003 that more progress was made to reveal exactly what had happened to the thousands of disappeared.

On 30 April 2017 the two surviving members of the original group of mothers joined with hundreds more to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of their first demonstration. Mirta Acuña de Baravalle aged 92, and 88 year-old Haydée Gastelú de García Buelas explained to the Buenos Aires newspaper Pagina 12 how the movement began.

According to Mirta, she had been to the office of the military chaplain to seek information, when she was handed a scrap of paper suggesting she go to the Plaza de Mayo the next day, Saturday 30 April 1977.

She was trying to discover the fate of her pregnant daughter Ana María, who had