Vance-Granville Community College will host a screening of “Las Abuelas De Plaza De Mayo and the Search for Identity,” a documentary film, on Wednesday, June 5 at 1 p.m. in the conference room in Building 8 on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County. The public is invited to attend the presentation, which is offered free of charge. The VGCC Global Awareness Committee is sponsoring the event.
Dr. Charlie Tuggle, Reese Felts Distinguished Professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, produced and directed the documentary and is screening it at colleges across the state.
This film tells the story of Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, an Argentinian human rights organization of grandmothers committed to finding their lost grandchildren. They believe these grandchildren were stolen by their government during the country’s military dictatorship from 1976-1983, a period in Argentina’s history referred to as the “Dirty War.” At least 10,000, and some estimate as many as 30,000, dissidents were kidnapped, tortured and killed during this time. Those kidnapped became known as Los Desaparecidos or “the disappeared.” An estimated 500 of these were pregnant women or new mothers whose babies were taken from them and given to people sympathetic to the regime. Everything about these babies’ identities was changed. The grandmothers banded together and began their search in 1977, and they have been searching ever since. Las Abuelas has found more than 100 of the missing grandchildren, many of whom had no idea about their true identities. The documentary features more than 40 interviews with members of Las Abuelas, the grandchildren who were found, family members of the missing and many others.
For more information, visit www.searchforidentitydocumentary.com.