Estela de Carlotto, founder of "Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo"
Estela De Carlotto is an member of the NGO “Abuelas De Plaza de Mayo”. In the 70´s, she was a teacher and the headmistress of a school. Her daughter Laura was kidnapped and murdered during the Dictatorship in 1976. Since then, the organization is searching people who disappeared during that period, their grandchildren.
Estela said that the grandmas are not special, they are searching for their children, their family. When all the investigation started they searched separately, until they realized that a lot of people were searching for their relatives, so they created a group. Then, they called it “Abuelas De Plaza De Mayo” because when they started complaining to the authorities, they couldn ́t walk in groups of more than three people. They circled that square to protest.
Carlotto and the group didn’t imagine that their kids had been killed; they thought that they were in the police station. So they started searching everywhere. They went to the jury to talk to the judge and make a case. They were very nervous and sad because they wanted to see the face of their children again.
The grandmothers were not scared by the military and they treated them with respect. When they made their meetings, to sign some papers or talk about the investigations, they met in common places. For example, restaurants and train stations.
When years passed Carlotto was attacked during one early morning of 2002 in her house. First, Estela thought something had exploded in the kitchen. She told us that she was not afraid because they were the same bullets that killed Laura, her daughter.
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