Lesson 3: Meet Víctor Basterra – Photographer…Survivor
Filmed interview by Marc Rogers, writer for The Argentina Independent
Readings
Click on each slide to gain access to the readings.
Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton (Analysis by Literature and its Times
Music
Click below to gain access to the music videos.
El Secuestro – Fernando Botero
“It was not unusual for Argentine citizens to disappear for committing such ‘subversive’ acts as teaching modern math or setting up cooperative farms for poor peasants. As more and more people vanished, a feeling of great fear swept over the country, and most Argentines felt powerless to stop the horrors that they suspected (or knew) their government was responsible for.”
A favorite quote of Glenn Mitoma from the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut:
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”
“Human rights violations do not just happen. They reflect particular choices made by specific individuals. To the world, these choices can appear quite puzzling. It is not altogether clear why human rights abuses are even committed, especially in the face of intense international and domestic scrutiny.”
“What is it that leads certain individuals to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on others? Why do neighbors and former classmates torture and sexually abuse people they used to run into at their local grocer? How do people decide to mutilate bodies or throw them from helicopters into the sea?”