Tomorrow, March 24, is the 30th Anniversary of the beginning of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina for seven terrible years from 1976-1983. Much has changed in Argentina since then, and the current President, Nestor Kirchner actually fought against the dictatorship when it was in place.

When I ask my wife and my in-laws how life was different for them, they just kind of shrug and say the streets were never so safe. They tell me about how someone once told them about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who were protesting the disappearances of their children in the center of town. They say they knew nothing about it - if the government controlled press didn´t mention something, it didn´t exist.

As I mentioned, the government is at least paying lip service to wanting to bring the old ¨militares¨to justice. A formal holiday was passed to remember the anniversary of the coup and to reflect on past injustices. The other night, there was a government ad on TV that made me cry - I´m sorry I don´t have a link to it. Keep in mind that not only were young radicals thrown out of airplanes into the Rio de la Plata, but babies were taken from young women and given to military families. It is known that many of these people, now in their 20´s, still do not know who their real parents are.

The ad starts with a young boy on a crowded beach looking lost. A concerned woman stands next to the boy and begins clapping her hands. (I was told that this is what people do here when they find a lost child in order for the parents to locate them more easily.) Soon a man also stands next to the woman and begins clapping...soon the whole beach is clapping as everyone despearately tries to locate the boy´s parents. The scene then fades out and fades back in to a single middle-aged woman clapping her hands in a darkened space. As the camera pulls back, an entire riser full of middle aged people are clapping there hands and they tell the viewers without saying a word - we are all looking for our children, The Disappeared.

There´s plenty more horror to go around, but just wanted to let my readers know that this is a really big deal down here.