Unit 3: The Repressed and the Repressors
Focus: history, human rights, literature, politics, testimonials
Teacher Instructions
Student Activities
Lesson 1: Century of the Wind – vignettes by Eduardo Galeano
Lesson 2: A Visit with the Organization of American States
Lesson 3: El Eternauta – a graphic novel
Extra Resources
Music and Videos
Desaparecidos: Listen, Look, and Create
ESMA video on ‘Dirty War’ detention center
*WARNING: Strong content*
Eduardo Galeano: despedida “Nos estamos viendo”
Las Guerras Mienten – Eduardo Galeano
Palabras: Un documental argentino que presenta el testimonio en el juicio a los genocidas
The Official Story/La historia oficial: Oscar winner 1984 for Best Foreign Film
This is an emotionally gripping, fictional look at a couple torn apart by the infamous Argentine campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused terrorists to unmarked graves in the mid-and-late-’70s.
Readings
Torturers Escape Prison in Argentina by Marcela Valente
Children of the Dirty War by Francisco Goldman
Quotes
“I was with a group of friends at a hotel’s restaurant in a small town up in the northern mountains in Argentina. My friends noticed someone at a nearby table and kept looking in that direction. It was a man about 10 years older than us, and a woman. The two seemed affected by the attention, got up, and left the restaurant without a word. My friends told me that the man was Aldo Rico, a “carapintada,” the leader of a military group that revolted against the democratic government that was trying to bring to justice those involved in crimes during the Dirty War. The next morning we came for breakfast at the restaurant. Rico and the woman were already there. He promptly got up and left. She approached our table alone. She said we had to forget the past. It was time to move on. And she left.”
“History never really says goodbye. History says, see you later.”
“First we will kill all of the subversives; then… we will kill all of their sympathizers; then… those who remain undecided, and finally we will kill the indifferent ones.”