Madres de la plaza de mayo

The Madres de la plaza de mayo still march every Thursday at 3PM. Watching it was kind of a trip. It was impressive to watch the same women (or at least some of them) who marched in defiance of the military government in the 70's, march around the same plaza, continuing to express their grief and indignation. As much as it was like looking into the past, it was impossible to ignore reality. The madres arrived in vans plastered with their web address ( http://www.madres.org/) and sold t-shirts, postcards and lapel pins from a long table on the side of the plaza which tourists lined up to buy. When they marched, it was like watching Bono try to push his way through a crowd, assistants had to walk in front of the madres to push inquisitive cameras out of the way. On this particular day, they shared the plaza with an indigenous rights protest, complete with a rock band, that made for a bizarre background to the somber scene of the mothers and grandmothers marching...

It seemed to me watching them, that the Madres had grown (and rightfully so) into local celebrities beyond critcism. It was interesting later when speaking with our drafted Argentine tour guides, to hear them casually mention that the Madres were often critcized. It's something I am still having difficulty understanding, but I suppose their are at least two sides to every story and while I doubt a majority of the country look back fondly on the not-so-distant past, some in Argentina still look back and see a military regime that had more benefits than drawbacks for the country.