A list of links to reports, organizations, resource centers, media centers, published books, and videos to deepen your understanding of past and present issues within Argentina.
Organizations
Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo [1]
Las Madres are a very well known organization through out Argentina and Latin America. Las Madres are a group of women whose children were part of the thirty thousand argentines who disappeared during the military dictatorship from 1976-1983. Las Madres fight relentlessly to protest and educate the people about the military dictatorship to ensure that a military take over of governemnt will never happen again.
Books
And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina (2005)
By Paul Blustein
It's not often--or maybe ever--that a book steeped in emerging-market economic theory reads like a thriller. But And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out) has cliffhangers and plot twists equal to a detective's tale, as Paul Blustein chronicles the spectacular rise and fall of Argentina's economy at the turn of the 21st century.
Doña María's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity (2000).
By Daniel James
The biography of a female union activist and Peronist who lived and worked for six decades in the meatpacking community of Berisso, Argentina. This narrative, besides being an examination of Argentine history and of the role of women in creating social change, is also an inquiry into the methodology of using oral sources for historical research.
Imagining Argentina (1987)
By Lawrence Thornton
This novel, set in the 1970s during the Argentine junta, tells the story of a man who discovers he possesses the gift of envisioning the fate of the disappeared.
Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina (1999)
By Rita Arditti
The heroic tale of a group of Argentine grandmothers who will stop at nothing to find their children and grandchildren who disappeared during Argentina’s 1976-83 "dirty war." These courageous women remind us how ordinary citizens can stand up to tyranny and prevail.
Generación Cromañón (2005) [13]
by Sergio Ciancaglini
"Generación Cromañón, lessons of resistance, solidarity, and rock and roll." The protagonists are the boys and girls that are willing to survive the dark clouds of poison. Politics, justice, democracy, work, ethics, security, self-care, rock, fireworks, lies, truth, the media, education: how do they see the world? How does one understand the present movement? The book is a photographic essay, an analysis of the collective "Situations," and a guide to the Cromañón universe: the network of organizations and activities that symbolize a rich and varied repertoire of strategies that look to battle impunity.
Films
The Take
Directed by Avi Lewis.
Written by Naomi Klein
In the wake of Argentina's spectacular economic crash in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out their sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act -the take- has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.
Memoria del saqueo (2003)
Directed and written by Fernando Solanas.
After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, successive democratic governments launched a series of reforms purporting to turn Argentina into the world's most liberal and prosperous economy. Less than twenty years later, the Argentinians have lost literally everything: major national companies have been sold well below value to foreign corporations; the proceeds of privatizations have been diverted into the pockets of corrupt officials; revised labour laws have taken away all rights from employees; in a country that is traditionally an important exporter of foodstuffs, malnutrition is widespread; millions of people are unemployed and sinking into poverty; and their savings have disappeared in a final banking collapse. The film highlights numerous political, financial, social and judicial aspects that mark out Argentina's road to ruin.
Imagining Argentina
Directed by Christopher Hampton
Written by Lawrence Thornton (novel) and Christopher Hampton
The film is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the generals' prison cells and torture chambers. The role of playwright Carlos Rueda is played by Antonio. When his activist-journalist wife, Cecelia (Emma Thompson), is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, by looking into the eyes of their relatives, he has clear visions of the fates of "los desaparecidos", or "the disappeareds", police prisoners spirited away for questionable offenses, tortured, and usually killed. But Carlos cannot "imagine" what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit stay with him.