DESAPARECIDOS

I thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to face you today to tell my story. Your microphones, voice recorders, and cameras make me realize that this story will not be forgotten after today. You will continue to tell this tale over and over again, until many people realize that I am but one with this kind of story.

You probably don’t realize how thankful I really am to stand before you today, because there are many like me who have not been able to do this, and many more that will not have a chance to face you.

My daughter is everything to me. The only treasure I have left in this life devoid of possessions. If her father were alive, he would be more inconsolable than I am right now. Her father passed away when she was just a child of six. And I raised her on my own from then on. I was able to send her to the university on my retirement pension.

I don’t know who taught my daughter to be fearless – me or the university. While the education she received there made her think independently and critical of our society, she probably saw how fearless I was making a life for the two of us. I did what I could since I was faced with no choice to make.

My daughter grew up thinking that if one runs out of choices, one has to do what he or she has to do – fearlessly.

Fear was something I didn’t pay much attention to in my day, as I tackled head on a life for me and my daughter. She grew up seeing this – and many more, I’m sure.

I probably raised a person who is so fearless that she is bound to disappear one day.

I don’t know which is more painful – to finally find my child by knowing she’s dead or not finding her at all.

The long wait is the most excruciating part.

I light a candle at dusk everyday to remind me of two things: One, that there’s no greater tragedy than having to outlive your child. And two, that if my daughter is gone from this life, I would rather that she died for being fearless than to have lived not doing anything about a fearful world.

Desaparecidos means missing (literally) or enforced disappearances (figuratively). These people have disappeared due to political causes (involuntary disappearances, summary executions, or extra-judicial killings).