Influenced by the example of the Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, in 1995, HIJOS – Sons and Daughters for the Assertion of Identity and Justice Against Oblivion and Silence – became a powerful voice in the struggle against impunity in Argentina, enabling hundreds of young people to find a safe space to speak up and reconstruct their identity.
In 1995 Argentina was a cesspit of impunity. The few military officers still behind bars, following the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws, had been released with pardons granted by President Carlos Menem.
Impunity was not some abstract concept or a group of murderous old men returning to live quietly at home. Menem defended the applications for promotion of two of the task group at ESMA[1], Captains Pernías[2] and Rolón; General Bussi, one of the most bloodthirsty agents of the repression under the dictatorship, was well on his way to winning the governorship of Tucumán; and other leaders of the repression dreamed of making a political career.
For human rights organizations these were years of defeat. Our young democracy had lost its teeth, and with each of their processions the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a beacon of dignity, reminded the country that we had lost our way.
At this moment of institutional paralysis, Horacio Verbitsky published his book El Vuelo (The Flight), in which Captain Adolfo Scilingo described in full detail the operations for the extermination of prisoners being held at ESMA. And yet, despite this confession, it seemed there would be no consequences.
Nevertheless, like the turn of the seasons or the alternations of the tide, one day the inevitable happened and, almost spontaneously, the sons and daughters of the victims of state terror began to meet up.
In April 1995 a small get together was held at Río Ceballos, Córdoba, where they proposed creating a group with the acronym HIJOS (Hijos e Hijas por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio – Sons and Daughters for the Assertion of Identity and Justice Against Oblivion and Silence).
Influenced by the example of the Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, HIJOS was quickly copied in dozens of towns and cities and soon became a powerful voice in the struggle against impunity.
Soon afterwards a camp was set up to bring together hundreds of young people from across the country, and in December that year, HIJOS arrived at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, where the Madres, deeply moved, introduced the new organization.
Decisions were taken in an assembly in which everyone could participate. At a meeting of HIJOS Córdoba, one member proposed that if the government was guaranteeing the impunity of those who committed genocide, at least society had the right to expose what they were doing. Which explains why a noisy crowd, followed by a column of young people with drums and jugglers, arrived one afternoon in front of the house of General Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, distributed leaflets to his neighbours and painted the front of his house with red blood, in what became known as the first escrache (public shaming) carried out by this organization.
‘Twenty murderers’, escrache video by HIJOS Córdoba, 2010.
Escraches, shamings, were repeated across the country. One day the Buenos Aires branch of HIJOS brought a crowd to Cabildo Street, and raising a cherry-picker up to a fourth-floor flat and shouted into Videla’s ear ‘Assassin’.
In one sense HIJOS shook out of their apathy a whole generation of young people, who had grown up resigned to impunity. Time and the historians will determine the true importance of this moment in Argentina. But, beyond that, there is no question that HIJOS offered its members the means of taking sides which they so much needed.
In an Argentina that had chosen to look the other way, in a country where a vast sector of society had responded to the shame of impunity by saying, ‘there must have been a reason for it’, HIJOS enabled hundreds of young people to find a safe space to speak up and reconstruct their identity.
HIJOS meant for many of its members the affection of a family which they had lost, and the work of the organization was a beautiful response, the concrete proof that the extermination plan of the military dictatorship had failed.
The danger and threats remain. Interview with an Hijo in Cordoba in 2024 whose house was fired on and had threatening posters fixed to its fence. Video: ElDoce.
Thirty years have gone by since that small camp which gave birth to this organization. Some of its members are grandparents themselves, but perhaps that experience of solidarity and enthusiasm may serve as the inspiration for other young people to come together, work together and face new challenges, putting a stop to the prophets of hatred and unreason who still proliferate in our country.
Andres Jaroslavsky is an Argentinian painter, living in York, UK. He is the author of The Future of Memory – Children of the Dictatorship in Argentina Speak, LAB 2004.
Main image: from HIJOS Capital Facebook page.
[1] ESMA, the notorious Naval Engineering School in Buenos Aires, was used during the Dirty War dictatorship (1976–83) as a secret centre for torture, murder and disappearance of opponents of the regime, controlled by Task Group 3.3.2. It is now a Museum of Memory for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights.
[2] Captain Antonio Pernías was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 for his role in the torture and sexual abuse, especially of women prisoners, at ESMA. Captain Juan Carlos Rolón was also a member of Task Group 3.3.2.
