Oral History: Gender and Memory. Argentine activist women (1966-1976)

ANDÚJAR, ANDREA

Estados Unidos

Congreso; Eleventh Berkshire Conference on the History of Women.; 1999

University of Rochester

During the 60s. and at the beginning of the 70s. many leftist political organizations emerged in Argentina, which in many cases included guerrilla armies. These organizations which were formed by men and women had as their purpose the destruction of capitalist society and the construction of socialism. This political project suffered a severe defeat in the middle of the 70s. and it was deepened by the coup d etat of March 24, 1976 and the implementation of State Terrorism. This meant the torture and disappearance of thirty thousand political and union activists, the breaking of solidarity bonds among the Argentine people and the imposition of the financial and monopoly capital as the dominant sector of economic domain. This paper is part of a broader research project that analyzes the participation of women in political-guerrilla organizations from 1966 to 1976. How and why did women practice the facto of being women? How the organizations that proposed a social change question gender relations? To what Che Guevara´s paradigm of the new man involved and allowed the construction of female and revolutionary identity? These are some of the main concerns of this project.