On March 24, 1976, a coup d’etat in
Argentina installed the military
junta responsible for approximately
30,000 forced disappearances over
the following 7 years.
If the Wicked Witch of the East became a young woman in my
country I doubt she would have sided with evil. She would
have joined us laying the engrudo thick on the walls of Buenos
Aires, to paste our flyers printed on coarse paper we carried in
the dark under our arms, young, inspired and outraged but not
yet able to tell the difference, braving nights the police in their
unmarked cars were out to catch “insurgents,” fondling their
nightsticks. If she was one of us, we would have welcomed
her, done our best to protect her, but, like many others, she
might have disappeared. As far as the Tin Man, he chose to join
a squad out to hunt what was condemned unpatriotic, while the
heart they promised him remained still, refused to go on
beating.