I recently interviewed Hebe de Bonafini, who is one of the founders of an organisation called Madres de Plaza de Mayo. This is a group of women who, in April 1977, during a military dictatorship in Argentina, started a protest in order to find out what happened to their missing children and husbands. It was common at that time that people deemed anti-government would simply disappear, being usually kidnapped by a secret police or paramilitary groups supported by the military government. Most of them were killed (probably a total of 30 thousand) and their bodies rarely found; many were dropped alive from airplanes into the ocean.
More than 30 years later the organisation is thriving. Hebe, currently 82 years old, is the boss and the face of the organisation. I can guarantee that many much younger people would envy her vitality and sharp mind. The energy that these elderly women have does not however come from the sense of the revenge they have, despite the fact that most of the people involved in the military regime have not been sentenced. The organisation is very involved in promoting human rights in Argentina and beyond. Madres also have their own radio, magazines, build affordable homes and get actively involved in politics. During her first international trip the new president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, made sure that the meeting with Madres is included in her very packed agenda.
The whole story of the organisation is extremely interesting, but primarily a great example that what seems like an end can be a great beginning, that even the worst experience can be turned into a positive action, that action is better than doing nothing, that action is satisfying and bitterness brings nothing.
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