The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the state terrorism of the military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983. They organized while trying to learn what had happened to their children, and began to march in 1977 at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, in public defiance of the government's state terrorism intended to silence all opposition. Wearing white head scarves to symbolize the diapers of their lost children, the mothers marched in solidarity to protest the atrocities committed by the military regime. They held the government accountable for the human rights violations they committed during their time in power.The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the first major group to organize against these human rights violations. Together, the women created a dynamic and unexpected force, which existed in opposition to traditional constraints on women in Latin America. The mothers came together, and pushed for information on their children. In carrying out these efforts, they also highlighted the human rights violations occurring, and raised awareness on local and global scales. Their legacy and subsequent progress were successful due to their sustained group organization, use of symbols and slogans, and silent weekly protests. Today, the Mothers are engaged in the struggle for human, political, and civil rights in Latin America and elsewhere.The military government considered these women to be politically subversive; the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Azucena Villaflor, along with French nuns Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet who supported the movement, were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the military government at the command of Alfredo Astiz and Jorge Rafael Videla , both of whom were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the repression of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other dissidents during the Dirty War.
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