Cultural Awareness For Spanish Immersion In Argentina: The Dirty War

When you attend Spanish school in Buenos Aires, at some point undoubtedly the political history of the area will be discussed. This might take place in your conversations with locals or classmates. Plus, when you visit the city's numerous cultural attractions, you will certainly want to make sure that you have some background knowledge about the region's history. One historical event that you will definitely want to know about in advance is the Dirty War.

So what is The Dirty War? From 1976-1983, state-sponsored violence took place in Argentina. The victims of this violence included thousands of left-wing activists. Estimates say that somewhere between 9,000 to 30,000 people either were killed or disappeared. These individuals included students, journalists, Marxists, guerillas of the People's Revolutionary Army as well as Montoneros. According to Amnesty International in 1979, 15,000 people had been not only abducted, but also tortured and murdered. There is still some uncertainly as to the exact amount of people who "disappeared."

During this time period, terrorism was carried out under Operation Condor, which was led by Jorge Rafael Videla's military dictatorship. When this military junta seized power, they began to focus on systematically killing left-wing terrorism. However, they ended up killing many innocent civilians in the process.

The term "Dirty War" originated because of the dirty methods of conducting a war, which included methods like torture and rape. At the time, the junta claimed these types of methods were necessary in order to maintain proper social order. The junta named itself the "national Reorganization Process." Their stated mission was to present "international communism."

Even once the dictatorship ended, justice was not necessarily served. A democratically elected president ended up pardoning members of the military junta. However, many of the responsible parties were indeed prosecuted through the Trial of the Juntas. Also in 2006, a court in Argentina stated that the crimes committed by the government in the 1970's were considered genocide.

During your Spanish immersion in Argentina, you will likely notice many people are still focused on the injustices that took place during the Dirty War. For example, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a high profile human rights organization that continues to seek out information about lost relatives who disappeared during this time period. They hold regular vigils and continue to focus on bringing military commanders to justice as well as search for missing people.

One of the benefits of attending Spanish school in Buenos Aires is that you will learn a great deal about the country's background. When you are actually living in the region, you gain a far deeper insight into politics and history than you would have simply through reading a book. As you learn more about the country's history, your Spanish immersion in Argentina will be more all encompassing.