Idi Ezkerra Foundation

“You just walk, don’t stop, keep walking”. This was the advice, the first time that Estela de Carlotto went to demonstrate at Plaza de Mayo. She was terrified, in front of the tanks, the police riding horses, and the soldiers with dogs. And she walked, and walked, and 30 years later, she is still walking.

The president of Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo Association was in Bilbao on October 31st to open the conference program the Paths of Memory, organized by Idi Ezkerra foundation. Estela de Carlotto is almost an icon, an example of dignity and sacrifice with her struggle for the recognition of the victims of the dictatorship in Argentina. She has been for two decades the president of this group of women, who have been struggling for 30 years under their white headscarf, for the memory of those who suffered the brutal represion of the military. She has been awarded with several distinctions and prices for this work, and this year she was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize of Peace.

In Spain, nowadays, there are many grandchildren who are trying to know what happened with their missing grandparents. However, in Argentina the grandmothers are the ones who struggle in the search of their grandchildren, who were stolen to their mothers after giving births. And this work was worthy. They already found 95 grandchildren.

The event was introduced by Julia Madrazo, and took place at Ercilla Hotel, in Bilbao. About 100 people attended. Estela de Carlotto, whose daughter was killed after giving birth a baby, was overwhelmed by the words of praise at the introduction because “what we do is something normal. Anywhere else, if a kid is missing, a mother will look for him. It’s a natural reaction. We are even looking for two generations: our children, and our grandchildren. We met in the way, while searching, and we decided to do it together”. She said that “the military let us do it. They didn’t take us seriously, and didn’t see any danger in our activity. They said ‘this mads will surrender. They called us mads. I don’t know what kind of mothers they have, but you cannot stop so easily a woman searching for her children”.

She remembered how the Argentinian society “was a passive society in a rich country. Along the 20th Century there were too many military coups, always ready to save the country of I don’t knwo what. But we didn’t do anything, we let them do. If there had been a civil response in time, we had avoided the victory of this ginocides and killers, and we wouldn’t have to hang around searching missing people”.

About her search, the Abuelas estimate that approximately 500 grandchildren born in clandestine clinics at the concentration camps were snatched from the arms of their mothers, who then were killed, and adopted by military men or by families supporting the regime. " It is difficult to believe that the killers could have lived growing in their own houses these children who, in many cases, are the spitting image of the persons they murdered. Such evilness, such perversity, is difficult to explain. " For Estela, this was because they wanted to prevent these children "to be educated by the grandmothers like their parents were: free, rebels, thinkers, always ready to fight for the good things ".

As for the reaction of the children when they are found, Estela told us that "when they have have doubts about their identity, they come to us with fear, not knowing what they will find. Somehow they felt their difference, how they were treated at home, the lack of information about certain stages of their childhood, and even the lack of physical similarities”. She spokes about the case of a boy who" found himself. It is more than two meters, and lived with really small parents. When he asked about his total lack of family resemblance, he never got a response and he was even punished”. Therefore, he decided to investigate, and surfing the Internet, he found a picture of him in the arms of his mother among the pictures of missing persons that we have posted. Then, he came to us. The meeting with his family was fabulous. Every time we find a grandchild is a big celebration. It is reversing the sinister project of the dictatorship and rescue a life".

In some cases, surveyed children don’t want to undergo DNA testing. In those cases a Court will order it because "you can’t walk around with a false identity. But we don’t force them to anything. We just want to restore their rights, their history, their name, ... and huge them. Nobody is going to change their life. When they are reluctant to start a relationship, the Abuelas can wait. Poor Abuelas! After years of search, when we finally find the grandchildren still have to wait for them. But we wait. We give them our love, little by little, we show them pictures, tell them stories about their parents, and finally full embrace comes. And nowadays, work with the association helping to find those they call their brothers "

In any case, the president of Abuelas, made it clear that "too much work remains to be done. Now we are exhumating graves of people buried without a name. But many bodies will not be recovered, especially those who were thrown alive from planes. " She also regretted that, after so many years, there is no justice in Argentina because "the laws of forgiveness let these murderers unpunished, in total impunity. These criminals do not regret what they have done. They don’t say sorry, they are proud, and say they would do it again. "

Estela de Carlotto, finished her presentation by saying that "the grandmothers never had a gesture of revenge, vengeance or hatred. Only a strong commitment with the truth, justice and memory", and she made a plea for the globalization of this commitment because" this is a very hard story, but it concerns not only to my country, but to the whole world, because it can happen anywhere, in any rich, wealthy, and cultured country as Argentina was. That must not happen again, and for that reason, the societies should not be so passive and let the governments do what they want. We must give young people the willingness to participate, to be able to express themselves not fearing prosecution, and most importantly, ensure they have a peaceful and free life. If we globalize in this commitment, it will not happen. Never again. ".

A long and affective applause echoed her words. Among the attendance, some tears were dropped. Estela Carlotto moved us with her emotional words, and her headscarf hungs on the wall of Idi Ezkerra´s headquarters in San Sebastian. And we are very proud of it.

Keep walking, Abuelas!