Although the documentary was in spanish and it was a lot to read all of the subtitles you would still hear the pain in the peoples voices. I can only imagine the amounts of stress and pain as well as fear and curiousidy that was flowing through their viens for so many years. It is impossible to even think of what was going through their heads when this occured, the fear that they went through as the soilders forced their way into houses and took children as well killing the father of the famiy in many instances. A mother of a child in many instances would witness their spouse being shot and killed as well as having their child,sometimes even a new born child, taken away from them. The mothers as well grandmothers in many cases had no idea what had happened to their child. They were taken from them and given to soilder's families to raise as their own child. Nights would pass and families would not know what happened to their loved ones, they would worry at night if they didn't come home that they were caught by the hostiles and killed or taken away. Stories of children getting off school buses and their mothers and fathers were waiting for them just to get one last hug before they would never see eachother again. The way they must have felt is unimaginable. I personally have never lost a loved one in my own family, the closest occurance I have had that can relate was loosing my best friend's Dad to brain cancer. Watching their family suffer and being so close to them was very difficult for me to go through. Their circumstance was different in the sense that it was a health issue taking him away from them rather than the military, as well as the fact that it was a gradual loss so they had time to prepare. Relardless of these differences I experienced people that were very close to me go through a loss of this nature, and it is uncomparable to the things that the people in Latin America went through. To not know if your son or daughter is alive and well and spend days at a time searching out on the street for some sort of closure. The streets at many times were flooded with mothers wondering and looking for their child. Mothers that were pregnant, wre taken by the military until they had their new born child and were released without the child afterwords. In some cases a child would grow up in a family and have no recollection of being taken or knowledge of what their real families had to go through. One of the interviews that stuck out to me during the video was a woman, who had been taken from her family before she was a even a year old and had time to form memories. She had no idea what had occured and spent many hours as a young child barely even ten years old asking her parents (the military family that had taken her in) what had happened when she was a baby. It was impossible for the children to mature and not hear about this awful occurance in the history of the era of their country. She said that she could not remember the experience she had when he was taken from her biological family but she had images. Throughout her childhood she imagined difference senarios in her head of what she went through, she even had a vision of her father being killed directly infront of her. That is something that no child should have to go through. I cannot think what would be worse, to witness the murder of your family or to know in your head that you were there and have no recollection and only have images in your head that you have built up over time hearing stories of other people's experiences and using your imagination. The stories that were told of mothers and grandmothers finding their children living with other families and having to sneak around in costumes to hide their identity just to watch the child that was taken away from them in such a horrid way and not be able to talk to them, or have anyone know what they are doing. The fear or losing your life for seeking out your family and seeing them; having the relief to know that they were well and living with another family. I relate this event to the holocaust. They did not exterminate the same way by sweeping through and putting people in camps and slautering them. However they did exterminate by taking the young of a people and raise them in a different way as well as killing the older men of the people. I was suprised when I had never heard of these events throughout all my pervious classes because of the terrible things and publicity that these events often get.
Somewhat relating to the discussion that was had in the preceding class period about our feelings toward the movie. One thing that was brought up was who the children could blame. Their parents that had raised them? It isn't possible to comprehend the thoughts that must have gone into these children's heads once they found out what the people that raised them and were their family did to them as children. Can they blame the military? Yes, they can blame the military but that is a large group, people like to put sole blame on a certain person or have a face to the crime. It is a terrible situation for the children to learn of their past and realize that as they grew up and were taken care of by "their family" it was all a lie. In reality, their family did probably the worst thing that they will ever go through. They have no one to balem and have to live with their problems and pictures in their heads for their entire life. Those are the kinds of experiences that you will never forget about and can keep you up at night for years and years.
Another discussion topic was about the people pardoned for their crimes. The officers that instructed the soilders to go through with these horrid actions were held at fault and sentenced to prison. However, all other officials and soilders that played a part in this massacre were released. In my point of view the soilders that followed out their orders are in the wrong just as much as the officers that ordered it. Although it is a soilders duty to listen to their officer and do whatever they are instructed to, I can't help but think that someone would have the morals to stand up and realize how wrong their actions were. Murdering people in cold blood and kid napping their children to bring into your family, when doing this it must have gone through many people's head how wrong it was. I also am not sure if the punishments given out to the different officers was not just for moral respect and show or did they really realize the negative affects of their actions? It is impossible for anyone to know, however I think that if they did realize their actions were that wrong than they would have shown more remorse for the families and people that went through it and no relieved that number of people from punishment. The things that those people did is unforgivable and I can't comprehend how they can go through their life everyday and live with themselves. This was a terrible time in the world's history and specifically Latin America, I hope people have learned from the past mistakes and nothing of this nature occurs anywhere in our world again.
Bryan Wegner
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