Co-founder of Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Juanita Meller de Pargament, dies at 101.
Juana Meller de Pargament, an iconic member of the Association of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, passed away yesterday at 101.
Known as “Juanita” to friends and family, she was one of the small group of women who joined the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in their first protest on November 10, 1976 - a few months before the group's official establishment. Meller de Pargament lost her son, Alberto, when a dictatorship death squad abducted that morning. His girlfriend was pregnant and later fled to Brazil, where she gave birth to a baby boy.
Twenty years later, Juanita met her grandson, Javier, by chance. The boy pointed to Alberto Pargament's photo displayed on a placard being carried by Juanita and said that he was his father. “He is my son,” Juanita responded. A test at the National Genetic Database (BNDG) confirmed their kinship.
Pargament last demonstrated in Plaza de Mayo on January 14, shortly after the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo resumed their silent marches after a ten-year hiatus in protest against President Mauricio Macri's dismissive stance on human rights. “As we always say, she did not leave us,” the group's longtime leader Hebe de Bonafini said in a press release yesterday. “She just moved and although her ashes will not be scattered in the square, she will be there every Thursday.”
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/209620/farewell-to-juanita
_______________________________________
A tribute to Juanita Meller de Pargament on what would be her last birthday, on July 20 last year.
= new reply since forum marked as read
