Mirta Acuña de Baravalle


Mirta Acuña de Baravalle is a human rights activist in Argentina. She is one of the twelve founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo associations.

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

At the beginning of 1977, Mirta Acuña de Baravalle joined the group of mothers and relatives who began to meet in the Plaza de Mayo. This group later became known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and she was one of its founders.
In October 1977, she received an invitation from Alicia Zubasnabar from De la Cuadra."Licha", another of the Mothers, to form a group of grandmothers who were looking for their missing grandchildren. She was one of the twelve founding women of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Her granddaughter is still missing.
In 1986, due to internal discrepancies, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo fractured. Mirta Acuña joined the sector called Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Fundraiser Line.

Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo

The Argentine coup d'état of March 24, 1976 established a terrorist regime that sought to "disappear" their political opponents. Neither another country, the Catholic Church, nor an international humanitarian organization, was willing to condemn the military regime's atrocities. The judicial system systematically rejected legal remedies.
Under these conditions, a group of mothers, fathers and relatives of the disappeared initiated an historic movement of nonviolent resistance. The proposal came from Azucena Villaflor, who was later murdered by the dictatorship.

Thought

I will never be able to forgive what they did to my daughter, my son-in-law, my grandson, and all that generation....We have not asked for revenge, only justice.