From spectres of horror to 'The Beautiful Death' : re-corporealising the desaparecidos of Argentina

In this chapter, I want to remember not only the disappeared but furthermore the women who refused complicity with the great ‘disappearing act’ of the Argentine state. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), and later Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo ( Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo), re-corporealised their lost family members and in doing so reinstated the desaparecidos (‘the disappeared’) into the social body that had denied them as full human beings.4 In destroying the dreamlike aura of the state’s magic trick, the desaparecidos were allowed to die and be re-membered and returned to the nation in stories of heroism. In exploring the ways the Madres managed to sustain and entrench their loved ones in the public imagination, I draw upon Argentine films as instances where the work of transforming the desaparecidos from monstrosities of fear to those worthy of remembrance continued.