Chapter 12: Bear Story(2014)

Stories of oppressive dictatorships (often supported by the United States) are sadly staples of national experiences across Latin America in, and through recent history. One unfortunate hallmark of such governments is making people disappear or become desaparecido (see also Romero in Chapter 7). Classified by the UN as a crime against humanity, Keefe (2018) writes that disappearances lock victims’ families in a constant state of not knowing what happened, making them unable to move on, to pursue justice, and to mourn their loss. I (Jesús) was a young man when I first learned about how this abuse of power was used across the continents. From the desaparecidos during the 1968 Student Revolt in Mexico City, to the Dirty Wars of Argentina, to the reign of Pinochet in Chile, enforced disappearances cast a long shadow. Still, this terrible tactic has also been met with resistance, from Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, to the Damas de Blanco, to the families who struggle to survive with their unsettled pain. Films like Bear Story (Vargas, 2014) bring to light the scars and impacts that desaparecidos have left across the Latin American experience.