Something that stood out to me when reading Kiss of the Spider Woman was the idea of being a political prisoner, someone who was considered a threat to the existing government and therefore disposed of. Many of the individuals were either jailed or disappeared without a trace. This was extremely common during the Dirty War. In the novel, Valentin’s mother does not care for him in any way, and they do not have a usual familial relationship. In many ways this reminded me of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo because of the stark contrast between the two situations. On the other hand, Valentin’s mother knows he is in jail, yet Valentin doesn’t want his mother to visit him, and she does not want to visit him.
The children and grandchildren of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo disappeared during the Dirty War. In order to find justice for their children, the mothers made a public showing in the local square. Because it was illegal to hold a demonstration, the women walked slowly in a counter clockwise circle in the middle of the square. The first ‘march’ took place on April 30, 1977, and continued every Thursday. The mothers wore white baby scarves on their heads that had the names of their disappeared children embroidered on them.
The number of mothers in the plaza grew into the hundreds and continued to gain support from other mothers, fathers, siblings, children and friends of the disappeared, as well as general supporters of the cause.
The mothers helped bring the atrocities of the Dirty War to light. They fought for their missing children while also speaking out against the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. In a way, they were keeping alive their children’s goals of revolution. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo keep the history alive and prevent others from forgetting about what happened during that period in history so it is not repeated.
Third World Literature 