Where Are Our Sons?

"A riot is the language of the unheard."- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There is something erie about church bells ringing as a cluster of elderly women march around La Plaza de Mayo wrapped in white scarfs. A winter chill is in the air while dozens of people both young and old gather around chanting. Two groups have formed. The first has the attention of the onlookers as  they clap and shout with TV cameras following them. The second group is no greater than twenty five trailing behind with their own posters and signs. The second group is accompanied by a man with a PA system reciting names. After a name is read the group shouts "Presente!" as  a way of saying the person is still here. In Argentina these women are known as "Las Madres de La Plaza de Mayo." For approximately 40 years these women have been protesting the government after the disappearance of their sons. Every single thursday in rain or shine the mothers meet at La Plaza de Mayo and march.

(Contra el patriarcado. .  End the patriarchy)

I could not hear the names being called but I knew immediately to whom they were referring. It felt like the speaker was muted and all I heard were the names of my brothers and sisters back in the states sounding off as if they were being called for active duty. They did not know they were on the front lines until the triggers were pulled.

Michael Brown. . . Presente!

Trayvon Martin. . . Presente!

Sandra Bland. . . Presente!

Tamir Rice. . . Presente!

Amadou Dialo . . . Presente!

Eric Garner. . . Presente!

Rashida Jones. . . Presente!

Miriam Carey. . .  Presente!

. . . . and so on and so forth.

This all began in late 1975- early 1976. There was a military take over of the country referred to as "Argentine coup d'etat." Three commanders took power from President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron who inherited the position from her late husband in 1974. It did not take much for her to lose power and influence amongst the country. The military government was determined to change the climate and culture of the country and used fear to maintain power. From then until 1983 over 30,000 people disappeared. Many were tortured and killed but for many there was no record of what happened. Pregnant women may have been detained but were often spared until after giving birth. Their newborns were then given to childless military families and the new mothers were murdered. The government today calls it "Guerra Sucia" or dirty war but that would then infer there were two sides in combat. How can a people fight a war they did not know they were drafted into? It was state terrorism, something that the United States was conscious of before and helped fund in Argentina and various other countries in Latin America and the rest of the world.

Needless to say I was in tears immediately. I immediately thought of Leymah Gbowee's autobiography Mighty Be Our Powers as she speaks about mothers being the greatest victims of war. We lose our husbands and sons. We are treated as objects to be raped and killed. If we are fortunate enough to have our loved ones return, the psychological damage caused to them tends to be physically projected onto us. Regardless, we receive a type of punishment for something we did not create. 

"Women are the ones who bear the greatest  burden. We are also the ones who nurture societies"- Leymah Gbowee

The march made me think of the Wall of Memories in San Salvador for all the civilians that were murdered in their Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of people that wanted justice were massacred by their own government. Survivors told us stories of the military marching into townships, slaughtering the masses then marching survivors into the streets and starving them only to line them up and gun them down in rows. Yet every year the country celebrates the end of the Civil War and takes the time to remember what happened so that it may never happen again. Rather than sweeping their bloody history under the rug, El Salvador bears their scars for all to see. Look, see, remember so that these wounds are never reopened. 

(San Salvador, El Salvador)

The march brought me back to the United States and my people in Ferguson that protested for months. So many mothers in our country right now that are demanding justice for their lost sons and the government turns a blind eye to them.

SYBRINA FULTON, Trayvon Martin

GENEVA REED-VEAL, Sandra Bland

LUCY MCBATH, Jordan Davis

GWEN CARR, Eric Garner

CLEOPATRA PENDLETON, Hadiya

MARIA HAMILTON, Dontre

LEZLEY MCSPADDEN, Michael Brown

WANDA JOHNSON, Oscar Grant

In the states, we know what happened to their sons. We watched it on replay on the news, on our phones, and for some of us we watch it happen everyday. I was taken back to see how heavily impacted some of my peers were by these events but could not necessarily connect the dots to other contexts. This is tragic. This is painful. This is also a reality for mothers across the world. We are still asking governments where are our children. The quest for justice is universal. This triggered so many different stories that I have heard or read about. Why is it that 40 years later governments are still negligent to faithfully serve the people that voted for them? What makes a 7 year dictatorship different from a 240 year old democracy?  Sometimes I ask myself, why does justice cost so much blood?

 (Si no hay pan para el pobre, no habra paz para el rico. . . 

if there is no bread for the poor then there won't be peace for the rich)

They called Argentina a Dirty War, they called El Salvador a Civil War, they call the United States the War on Drugs, but a war implies that there are multiple players. Government vs. unarmed civilians is not a war. Democracy vs. the people is an oxymoron. This is terrorism. Many Americans tend to think terrorism must come from an outside party but I have seen enough Scooby Doo episodes to know terror can come from your own neighbor. One of my peers asked about Uruguay and why there are still prisoners thee even though there is a new government. I tried to inform them that we still have political prisoners in the states today. "Ok but they have an entirely new government" they responded. Yes, and we have had at least four new presidents since the 80's, I do not not see the correlation. When you are a prisoner, especially as an ally to political resistance, you are a prisoner forever. You are forgotten. I think we have done a great job as a global society in convincing people governments are different. Do we fail to remember how quickly Hungarian politics switched from the Nazi party to the Communist party when Hitler fell and Stalin remained? Some of these ideologies can be molded to meet the needs of others. Some people can merely remain silent and allow their actions to speak for themselves as a means of survival. Even when an organization has good intentions, there is always the potential for it to be poisoned. I am thankful people are no longer being kidnapped on a mass scale and tortured by their own government. I think we can also be open and honest to say politics are corrupted and injustice is still happening, globally to be quite frank. Mothers are still asking for the sons. That is evidence enough.

(43 disappeared in Mexico)

As I heard more about the kidnappings and scare tactics used, I reflected on living in the United States. For many of us we are now at a point where getting pulled over is an act of terror. Will I be shot dead in my car today or is this a normal ticket? I would push the envelope a bit and challenge over policing as a scare tactic as well. After working in Philadelphia I have witnessed students being arrested for all the wrong reasons. Some have been taken for decriminalized marijuana. Bails have been set to outstanding limits forcing students to just sit in a cell until a court date. A few days would go by in the office without seeing a student then we would find out they had been arrested the previous weekend. At this point some may be thinking, "Nikki you are stretching it. Policing and kidnapping are two different things." But is it? How much different is arresting the powerless over charges that may or may not be valid? True, from our understanding of the system we have Habeas Corpus and our inmates are not necessarily being tortured. Do many of their human rights get violated? Yes, that we can say. Do all of them receive justice? Absolutely not. Have many spent their life or an abundance of time in prison for crimes they did not commit? Yes that too is true. Are there specific groups of people being targeted to occupy prison beds? . . Come on now. I work in communities were black women are scared for their black sons. I have sat in groups where young men have blatantly said " I am scared for my brothers under 25 years old." There is something wrong with our culture if 1) We are afraid of people that are hired to serve us, 2) We cannot see social injustice in our own country, and 3) We do not feel deeply connected to the injustices other nations have faced through our own government's support. 

I hate this feeling of connection. I hate being able to watch mothers march demanding to know what happened to our sons and immediately think of the mothers in my country still waiting for justice. I hate that the mothers are so well supported here while the mothers of my sisters and brothers in the states receive mixed sentiments. Do they need to march in front of the White House once a week for 40 years for our country to finally respect them? I hate that my peers can be empathetic in Argentina but indifferent in the United States. I hate that my own country played a role in supporting oppressive governments all over Latin America, Africa, and Asia. 

I hate this feeling of being a representative of the oppressor internationally when I am the oppressed domestically. I hate even more that I feel so strongly about this American oppressor identity when I have been called Brazilian multiple times since my arrival. What does that even mean for me and what is my role in this space? This experience was heavy for many reasons and I am still trying to digest all that I have consumed. I hope that I can come back to this post in a year with more substance and understanding. Until then, I will continue to pray for the mothers across the globe as they continue to cry "Where are our sons?"

#Reclaim Missionary