Luis Puenzo's Official Story calls attention to one of Argentina's most infamous campaigns waged during President Jorge Rafael Videla's rule. Argentina transitioned to a dictatorship in 1983 following a coup d'état that led to the deposition of previous President Isabel Martinez de Peron. To maintain control over Argentina, Videla launched several legislations that "closed the National Congress, imposed censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control" (Britannica). People suspected of being dissidents or subversives were jailed and persecuted in unknown and covert concentration camps. These people, known as "los desparecidos" or "the disappeared", would be tortured through cruel methods, ranging …show more content…
Set in 1983 Buenos Aires during a time of decreasing military government, the Official Story recants the story of a wealthy teacher's quest to understand the circumstances of her daughter's adoption. A history teacher, Alicia is a law-abiding citizen who believes solely what is written in the historical textbooks. However, a life-changing encounter with her estranged friend Ana makes Alicia want to investigate the circumstance of her daughter Gaby's adoption. According to the Association for Diplomatic Studied and Training, "arrested pregnant women would be held in prison until the baby was born. Then they might disappear, and the baby would be taken by a military family or someone associated with the intelligence service who wished to adopt a baby." Given that Alicia could not conceive children, she realized that perhaps Gaby may be the daughter of a desparecido, political prisoner, and hopes to find Gaby's biological family. Her investigation eventually leads her to Gaby's biological grandmother and a disturbing truth about her husband Roberto, who is revealed to be a government official under the corrupt Videla …show more content…
Prior to speaking with Ana, Alicia had been a firm believer of what was written in historical textbooks and never considered unofficial history as a legitimate source. When discussing the topic of Argentine patriot Mariano Moreno in class, her student Costa emphatically points out that not all written history is true. Alicia believed that prominent politician Moreno had died of natural reasons and been pushed overboard, not Costa's rendition that he had been poisoned for being an expatriate. Hence, hearing Ana's story of torture represented an evolution of her personal views on the role of history in modern society. The deeper she went into her journey to find Gaby's biological family and investigate "los desparecidos", the more cynically she viewed history. In fact, at the end of the movie, Alicia gives Costa an A- on his paper for creativity, despite lacking the needed historical references. The truth about Gaby's adoption not only completely changed Alicia's philosophy but also affected her physical and mental composure. Alicia, once considered a part of the bourgeois, picked up smoking as a way to cope with her stress. Her hair quickly grayed and her appearance mattered less and less to her. Instead of hanging out with her girlfriends, she began
With several astute observations in his memories, Aires gets to deceive and confuse readers. The diary covers two years in the life of a sexagenarian with his proverbial wisdom but placid, deceives and misleads the reader with small observations. The narrator reports people who lived with the narrator, reading quotes and works that read as a diplomat and reflections on past events that occurred in politics. One of the main characters depicted by Aires is Fidelia, a young girl who he was interested. Due to his old age, Ayres never revealed his love to Fidelia, but considered a daughter to the couple Dona Carmo and Aguiar, who cannot have
In Mario Suarez’s essay “El Hoyo” it is mainly about a small section of the city of Tucson. It is the area that has been inhabited by Chicanos. The term chicano is the short way of saying Mexicano. Suarez explains the good and the bad about El Hoyo. He says that he does not understand why people come back to El Hoyo, but there is something unexplainable about it that it does. It is possibly the human kindness of El Hoyo that brings people back.
Part I: “Consensus in Argentine Society and the Rise of Perón”. Chapter one, “ The Crisis of the Liberal Consensus” begins explaining the low participation of the Argentinean population in the government due to electoral fraudulence and intimidation. Then, he goes on to detailed how the democratic liberalism governmental system was threatened by the elites of Argentina because they fear the possible loss of their power from the new sectors that were rising. After, the author expressed that the
In Sandra Benitez’s novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, we get to know the lives and struggles of the residents of a small town in Mexico. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The conflict I chose was the conflict that Marta was with her child and how her anger about the child made her do things she wished she could take back. It all starts with Marta and her sister. Marta is pregnant and thinks she can't take care of the kid so she wants an abortion. Then once Choyo Marta’s sister husband found out he insisted to take the kid once he is born. So then Marta decided to take care of the baby until it was born but then after time went by the husband of Choyo said that he wouldn't be able to take the kid because he was already going to have a child with Choyo. Once Marta was told this she let her anger get the best of her which then lead her to
As the next few weeks go on we see Pedro and Tita's relationship develop. The biggest change is when Pedro's son Roberto is born. Tita begins to breast feed Roberto because Rosaura had no milk after the strain of her pregnancy. The author uses imagery to express the feelings of longing between Pedro and Tita by writing about the looks they gave each other. Specifically when Pedro looked at Tita, it was a look that, when matched with Tita's "fused so perfectly that whoever saw them would have seen but a single look, a single rhythmic and sensual motion." This look changed their relationship forever, it bonded them together and they would never be separated in their hearts. This shows that the theme of, true love can withstand anything, is true. After this interaction between them they had been less careful about hiding from Mama Elena and when the baptism rolled around Mama Elena had seen enough. She decided, in the middle of the party that Pedro, Rosaura and Roberto would be moving to San Antonio to be with her cousin. They left and after about a year Mama Elena passed
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government abductions that took place in Argentina, the military regime began to do the same.... ... middle of paper ... ...
After the revolution of 1943 Juan Perón shared control of the Argentinean government. Under Pedro Ramirez, Perón held three cabinet positions. With that he saw an opportunity. He did many reform programs and won a lot of the support of labor unio...
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
Jorge Videla was the leader of the military-run government. At the time, it was very easy for Videla to seize power because of the highly unstable condition that Argentina was in, and had been in for decades. In September of 1955 all three branches of the military revolted and forced the president, Juan Perón, into exile. Eleven years later, in 1966, a new leader, Juan Carlos Ongania, imposed the military rule again only to have the former president, Perón, return in 1973, and ...
To understand fully the implicit meaning and cultural challenges the film presents, a general knowledge of the film’s contents must be presented. The protagonist, Tita, suffers from typical Hispanic cultural oppression. The family rule, a common rule in this culture, was that the youngest daughter is to remain unwed for the duration of her mother’s life, and remain home to care for her. Mama Elena offers her daughter, Tita’s older sister Rosaura, to wed a man named Pedro, who is unknowingly in mutual love with Tita. Tita is forced to bake the cake for the wedding, which contains many tears that she cried during the process. Tita’s bitter tears cause all the wedding guests to become ill after consuming the cake, and Tita discovers she can influence others through her cooking. Throughout the film, Tita’s cooking plays an important role in all the events that transpire.
By the fall of 1981, the Argentinean government under the leadership of General Galtieri and the military junta was experiencing a significant decrease of power. Economical...
Rodriguez’s mother is left in a state of misery and isolation after her family leaves her. Left in Cuba without her children, Rodriguez’s mother has only her mother and husband. However, she suddenly finds a kitchen towel “smeared with another woman’s lipstick” and quickly
“The Day It Happened,” written by Rosario Morales, is a brave and strong story about a woman named Josie who once was madly in love with her husband Ramon in spite of being physically abused by him. Josie’s neighbors noticed the domestic violence, helping her create a friendship bond between them. The neighbors became a type of support group to her, like many woman have in today’s society, helping her gain strength to leave Ramon for their future child’s safety. Sadly, women today still struggle in search for strength and courage that Josie gained. It is estimated at least 1.8 million women are physically abused in a relationships every year (Strube, Barbour 785). Throughout multiple researches, many people do not have a specific answer of
Months pass by and the Herritons receive another letter that informs them that Lilia had given birth to a baby boy but had died during childbirth. Mrs. Herriton did not believe that Signor Carella was capable of being a father and sent Phillip and Harriet to Italy to retrieve the baby. Ms. Abbott, believing she had failed Lilia the first time, joined them on their trip. While in Italy, Ms. Abbott and Phillip have a change of heart and...