Between 1976 and 1983, an estimated 30.000 people were killed or disappeared by a military dictatorship in Argentina. In the context of the Cold War, and with the support of the United States, the Argentine armed forces carried out a systematic plan of extermination against leftist militants, workers, students, intellectuals and artists labelled as "subversives" and "terrorists". This repression, later understood as state terrorism, would force victims to choose between embarking on a forced exile or risk being arbitrarily detained or kidnapped. While some people were transferred to common prisons, others were taken to clandestine detention centres where they were tortured and killed. The armed forces used the term "disappeared" to refer to these deaths that left no trace and were not registered, as the bodies were buried in mass graves or thrown into the sea in what was known as the ‘death flights’ by which thousands perished during the military dictatorship.

The children of the disappeared also fell victim to the dictatorship—many were kidnapped at the time of their parents' arrests. Others who were born in the detention camps were stolen from their imprisoned mothers. These minors were then illegally trafficked or appropriated at the hands of the military to be raised under a false identity. At the time, many sectors of Argentine society chose to passively conform to this scene of gross human rights violations. However, for many of the family members of the disappeared, the fate of their loved ones kept them determined and eager for answers as to their whereabouts. As a result, an emblematic human rights movement emerged in the country conceived by groups of women known as “Madres de Plaza de Mayo” (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo) and “Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo” (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo), who peacefully denounced the crimes of the military dictatorship against their children and grandchildren. It is estimated by the Abuelas that around 500 of their grandchildren were kidnapped, disappeared and kept from knowing their true identities. To date, 132 people have been recovered and reunited with their biological families thanks to the human rights movement and the organisation’s efforts.

On January 1, 1980, I arrived in Argentina. I entered clandestinely, during the time of the military dictatorship, after crossing the skies of several countries. I was a year and a half old and had been born in Mexico during my parents' exile. They were returning and I was arriving for the first time. On August 21 of that same year, an operation carried out by the Argentine army and police forces broke into the house where we lived, detained my parents and took them away. As a result, my grandfather and his wife, whom I barely knew, had custody of me for the next four years. In this work I reconstruct memories of those years that persist to this day despite the fact that I had no photos of them. Evocations of my own memory, parts of my personal archive, views of my small childhood collection.