La Cautiva

La Cautiva

The movie is a story about the dark days of military rule in Argentina in the period between 1976 -1983. A police officers daughter’s life changes in an instant when an unflinching judge gives her the shocking news that her parents are not really her parents, neither is her name hers and as a matter of fact she is not fifteen even though she had celebrated her “fifteenth” birthday (Jitrik, 241-263).

The girl is informed that according to blood tests, “her parents” are really not her parents. Her real parents were among tens of thousands of people who were taken into custody and were never seen alive again.

This movie brings the memories of the difficult period that Argentina went through and how the atrocities of the military junta continued to affect the lives of the people long after the end of its rule. The role of the US in not doing anything while the junta reigned terror in Buenos Aires while thousands and thousands simple “disappeared”. The US still had relations with Argentina during that period as is evidenced by Henry Kissinger shaking hands with Rafael Videla in 1978 (Jitrik, 241-263).

History affects countries but we should not overlook the fact that countries exist because they have citizens. While history relates to a country collectively, individually it affects people too because the actions that shape a nation are performed by people. Atrocities were committed in Argentina and America is not blameless for inaction during the period those atrocities were committed.

The political issues involved and relations between the US and Argentina during the totalitarian rule in a way enabled the Argentinean junta to make thousands of people “disappear”. Perhaps the US could have done more. Maybe had the US approached the relations different, had America’s policy towards Argentina been different, maybe Cristina Quadri in the movie “La Cautiva” would not have had her life turned upside down by being informed that her whole life had been a lie (Jitrik, 241-263).

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