Tatiana Ruarte

I was in the plaza of Villa Ballester with my mother and my sister who was just months old. Uniformed men got out of a van. My mother said goodbye to us and walked away. They put a hood over her head immediately.

Oscar Ruarte, kidnapped August 17, 1976. Tatiana Ruarte, kidnapped in October 1977.

We remained in the plaza until it began to get dark. Eventually we were taken to the police station, where they terrorized us with dogs. I knew that my name was Tatiana, and that’s what I told them at the police station, “Tatiana Ruarte,” but they understood Duarte and recorded me as “name unknown.” They sent me to the Villa Elisa orphanage and my sister to the children’s hospital.

One day they took me to the court in San Martin for adoption. The couple that took my sister were there. They wanted to take me too but they were told that I had already been given to someone else.

But the couple that adopted me returned me because my skin was too dark. The court contacted the couple that had adopted my sister, and they took me too.

Thus Tatiana Ruarte and Laura Jotar (then Tatiana Sfiligoy and Mara Sfiligoy) lived together in the same adoptive home until March 19, 1980, when they were located by the Abuelas.

“I don’t remember anything about my mother. Of my father, I remember being together in a house and that we moved a lot.”

Buenos Aires, July 24, 2001: Tatiana Ruarte (Tatiana Sfiligoy), and her grandmother Amalia Perez de Ruarte.

Manuel Goncalvez

Manuel was the only survivor of an attack on a house in San Nicolás. His mother had taken refuge there after his father was kidnapped. Everyone else died in the attack — his mother, some of her friends, and two other children.

GastĂłn Goncalvez, kidnapped March 24, 1976. Ana Maria del Carmen Granada, November 11, 1976.

Manuel was in a closet, which saved him, but he was in terrible condition as a result of the gas used in the attack. The police brought him to the hospital and there he stayed, unidentified, in the custody of the police for five months.

His only visitors were the family of one of the policemen who had carried him out of the house. They wanted to adopt him, but the judge did not allow it, instead putting him in the custody of the Novoa family.

Manuel returned to the house in San Nicolás when he went to take flowers to his mother in the cemetery there. Ana was buried in San Nicolás after being moved from a tomb for the unidentified. In the cemetery there is a commemorative plaque placed by the family of the policeman who participated in the operation that killed manuel’s mother.

Today Manuel has a wonderful relationship with his grandmother Matilde and his brother GastĂłn. It makes him sad when his grandmother tells him that it is hard for her to see him because it brings up memories of her lost son, but Manuel understands.

Guernica, Buenos Aires, September 23, 2001: Manuel Goncalvez with his grandmother Matilde de Goncalvez and his daughter Martina.

Marcos Suarez

“It was crazy, I had never thrown so many stones in my life,” Marcos said. He was part of a motorcycle gang faced off against the police using motorcycles and stones during the demonstrations against the government of Fernando de la RĂșa in December 2001.

Maria Vedoya, kidnapped in October of 1976. Hugo SuĂĄrez, kidnapped December 10, 1976.

“I am very much alive; I’m passionate about things. If I see something bad, I jump in. If I see a motorcyclist in trouble, I help, no matter what.” I imagine that this is what ties him to his past. Marcos Suárez was kidnapped December 10, 1976 with his father, Hugo, who carried him in his arms. His mother María Rosa Vedoya had been kidnapped two months earlier. Nothing is known of the whereabouts of either of his parents.

Marcos appeared in the children’s hospital on a stretcher. He stared at the nurse who took care of him until he one day smiled at her. From that moment on she was his mother. That’s what they told him. Also that he was called Gustavo and that his father had abandoned him.

Marcos approached the Abuelas to look for his father. There he found another story. That his parents in truth were Hugo and MarĂ­a Rosa, and that he had been kidnapped himself before he was a year old.

His grandmother, Modesta Vedoya, had been looking for him for thirty years and had given up hope of ever seeing him again. Estela de Carlotto called to tell her that Marcos had been found. Modesta thought the call was a joke.

When she finally had him in front of her again the only thing she remembered was the moment she saw him smiling in the arms of his father when he was just eleven days old.

La Plata, Buenos Aires, January 30, 2007: Marcos SuĂĄrez with his grandmother Modesta Vergara de Vedoya.

María José Lavalle Lemos

CocĂł was born September 2, 1977, in Pozo de BĂĄnfield. She had been kidnapped a month and a half before in JosĂ© C. Paz by a group of police and military who took her mother, father, and sister Maria, who was a year and a half old. CocĂł hadn’t even been born. Her mother was eight-months pregnant when she was abducted.

Gustavo Lavalle, kidnapped July 20, 1977. MĂłnica Lemos, kidnapped July 20, 1977.

When the Abuelas began to search for CocĂł, her kidnappers, Nelson RubĂ©n and Teresa GonzĂĄlez, who was an officer in the Buenos Aires Police Department [suboficial de Investigaciones de la bonaerense], PABLO I CAN’T FIND YR EMAIL THAT GIVES THE TITLE. WOULD YOU PUT IT IN PLEASE? began to move regularly. They explained to her that the constant moving was in response to dangers brought about by Teresa’s work.

In 1987, on a plane going to the court in Mar del Plata, CocĂł dreamed about the clouds. Are they made of cotton or smoke, she wondered. She did not understand what was happening. Why were these people taking her from her family and bringing her to another family? She began to wonder about her new parents.

Upon arriving at the court they introduced her to her real relatives. Haydee kissed her and told her how hard she had looked for her. “I did not understand half of what was going on. I didn’t want to. Plus they kept introducing me to old people and never to my parents.”

Ten years had passed since the kidnapping in JosĂ© C. Paz on July 20, 1977. CocĂł had been returned to her family but those parents she was waiting to meet — they weren’t there. They are still missing.

Buenos Aires, November 4, 2004: María José Lavalle Lemos and her grandmother Haydee Vallino de Lemos.

MarĂ­a Eugenia Sampallo BarragĂĄn

Mirta BarragĂĄn, kidnapped December 6, 1977. Blanca and Ana BarragĂĄn

Finally the long-awaited moment arrived: On June 4, 2003, my name VIOLET MARIA EUGENIA RIVAS was officially changed, thank goodness. My TRUE name was recorded as MARIA EUGENIA SAMPALLO BARRAGAN, daughter of Mirta Mabel Barragån and Leonardo Rubén Sampallo. Unfortunately, my birthday is a bit of a guess, although it is as close as we could get it.

This is all a triumph for me, because in some way my search—which began with the help of my friends, and with their concern and patience—has finished, at least the legal part. I can say that I triumphed because this lie that I was told so many times has had an end.

There is another part of the story, that, more than a search, it was a discovery. I wanted to share this with you. A toast! Cheers!

A kiss,
Maria Eugenia Sampallo BarragĂĄn

The parents of Maria Eugenia and Mirta’s son, three-year-old Gustavo Rojas, were kidnapped December 6, 1977. Mirta was six-months pregnant and gave birth to her daughter in captivity. Gustavo was given to his grandparents 25 days after the kidnapping.

Mirta and Leonardo were seen for the last time in the secret center at El Atlético.

Abasto, Buenos Aires, October 5, 2003: Maria Eugenia Sampallo BarragĂĄn with her grandmother Lily Flora de BarragĂĄn and her brother Gustavo Rojas.

Paula Cortassa

“When she saw me for the first time, she shouted, ‘Paula!’ Grandmother Delfina is the only person who calls me Paula.

Enrique Cortassa and Blanca Zapata, kidnapped February 11, 1977.

“When I was three I found out that I was adopted. I had horrible nightmares of violent deeds until I was 12. Eventually, I began to wonder about the dates and asked my adoptive mother if my parents had been disappeared. I cried like the condemned when she said yes, but it was a relief.”

“In 1995 I began to look for them. A woman saw me on Channel 3 in Rosario. Immediately she thought that I was the granddaughter of Agustín, my father’s father. She found me in the phone book. She spoke with my adoptive mother and they met. They went to see Delfina, who showed her a photo of Blanca. At that point, my adoptive mother thought that they might have found my family.”

Paula/Carolina continues to search for more information about her parents. She continues to search for her brother or sister. Blanca, her mother, was about to give birth when she was kidnapped.

Two years after recovering her identity, Paula/Carolina found her mother’s remains and had them buried in the Venado Tuerto cemetery.

“We were together through to the end. Blanca was a caring mother. I love knowing that they had an idea and believed in it. I love knowing that they worked in the villages. I am proud of what my parents did.”

Rosario, Santa Fe, August 26, 2001: Paula Cortassa (Carolina Guallane) and her grandmother Delfina Abba de Cortassa.

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Tags: Buenos Aires city, human rights, portrait

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