Adolfo Francisco Scilingo, a Navy captain during Argentina's "Dirty War" between 1976 - 1983 attempting to save civilians from Communisim.
Brava premieres Marisela Trevino Orta's Ghost Limb July 6 - 23, the story of a woman's search for her "disappeared" son at the hands of the Argentinian military dictatorship. In one scene, Orta evokes the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who used their status as mothers to bring universal attention to the invisible. Ghost Limb meditates on women's relegated status to reveal how underrepresented voices, bodies and individuals, challenge the military regime through their very being.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo still pray in hopes their "disappeared" children and grandchildren are found. High-ranking officers come to the vigils in honor of their fallen comrades. Consider how traumatic events can unease the mind and how memories can be obsessive. Repression has played a significant role during the Dirty War years. The experiences of these women, soldiers and children, cannot simply erase a painful past.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Antonius Robben is a professor in Anthropology in the Netherlands. Since 1993, he has been the chair of the departments of Cultural Anthropology and Latin America. He has a Ph.D from UC Berkeley and is a research fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. The majority of his fieldwork takes place in Brazil and Argentina.
In his article "How Traumatized Societies Remember: The Aftermath of Argentina's Dirty War," he analyzes three traumatic components these individuals have experienced: denial and disclosure, rebellion and defense, and confession and reckoning. An analysis in which underrepresented and marginalized identities, voices, and bodies need to be reflected on.
Press photos from Ghost Limb by Kolmel W Love.