Since Argentina's 1977 military coup, somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 Argentines have "disappeared." Every Thursday for almost 50 years, the mothers and the grandmothers of the missing have been marching in silent protest, a sad, defiant refusal to back down.
"'The madres' are revolutionaries, even though they aren't using rifles or guns or bullets. All they have [are] photographs of their children—and their own determination," said actor Ivonne Coll, who plays the grandmother of a "desparecido" in Teatro Vista's production of The Madres, opening Thursday, April 27.
Playwright Stephanie Walker's harrowing, fact-based drama depicts the struggle and the strength of Argentina's "los madres," a coalition of women whose daily march before Buenos Ares' Casa Rosada bears witness to countless missing loved ones, many of them children.
Coll portrays Josefina, grandmother to Belen, a young woman who has disappeared. The cast also includes Lorena Diaz as Josefina's daughter Carolina. Carolina and Josefina are fictional characters, but their ordeal is one shared by thousands of Argentine women.
"I find it incredible that the women have taken this on themselves. Putting themselves in great danger, rejecting the stereotype that they should be silent housewives," Walker said. "They have already lost their daughters and their sons and their grandchildren. What else do they have to lose?" she said.
The Madres unfolds with razor-wire tension as Josefina and Carolina desperately maneuver to bring Belen home—or find out whether she's even still alive. On the surface, their interactions with two old family friends sound utterly innocuous. There is much chitchat about futbol ( soccer, in the United States ) and the weather. But the dialogue is loaded to a breaking point with subtext and tension, the situation hurtling toward a brutal resolution.
More than 49 years since the initial madres began their vigil in Buenos Ares, their plight remains at once inspiring and tragically timely, said director Ricardo Gutierrez.
"These women have taught the world how to resist tyranny and fascism. They are demanding more than 'thoughts and words and prayers,'" Gutierrez said. Their demands have been met with silence from a regime known for torture, throwing pregnant women out of airplanes and "disappearing" anyone remotely critical of the military dictatorship. The number of missing is difficult to track: Sources put it at anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000.
"As terrifying as this is on so many levels, the women—their resilience—is inspiring," said Coll. "It's a reminder, too, that this isn't just something that happened in Argentina. It's happened all over the world. It continues to happen."
Playwright Walker visited Buenos Ares several times as a child; her father worked in the Argentine capitol during the military dictatorship's reign. But it wasn't until after college that she met one of the "madres" and was invited to join in their march.
"It put everything into perspective," Walker said. "With the mothers, it's not a male/female thing. It's a power thing. There's such a culture of silence that pervaded Argentina for so many years. If your child disappeared, you couldn't even talk about it with friends or family without endangering them too.
"These women, at great risk, said 'enough. Why is no one talking about our children disappearing?' " Walker said.
Walker hopes audiences see themselves in the women of "The Madres."
"I hope people engage. I hope they see the resilience. I hope they realize that this happened in Argentina, but it could happen anywhere," she said. "For me, it's 'a reminder. To stay vigilant. To appreciate the freedoms I have. To speak about the freedoms that are taken."
Teatro Vista's The Madres continues through Sunday, May 27, at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are $20-$45. For more info, go to TeatroVista.com .
