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Family Canon: The Politics of Family during the Last Civic-Military Dictatorship in Argentina, 1976–83
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2021
Abstract
On 24 March 1976 a military junta deposed President María Estela Martínez de Perón and assumed power in Argentina. From the first days of the takeover, the authorities worked vigorously to restore what they defined as legitimate Argentine values. This article shows how the family became a focal point of the government's efforts because of its double function as an agent of and a target for renovation. A microcosm of the Argentine nation, the family was considered the basic building block of society, a guarantor of the civic well-being of the nation and, as such, an important ally of the authoritarian state in the fight to restore Argentina's ‘traditional’ values. The analysis focuses on the civic-military regime's efforts to fashion a family canon, which would become the only legitimate version of the Argentine family, and the broad repertoire of strategies used to impose it on the Argentine population.
Spanish abstract
El 24 de marzo de 1976 una junta militar derrocó a la presidenta María Estela Martínez de Perón y asumió el poder en Argentina. Desde los primeros días de la deposición, las autoridades trabajaron vigorosamente para restaurar lo que consideraban eran los auténticos valores del ser nacional argentino. Este artículo demuestra como la familia se convirtió en un blanco de estos esfuerzos debido a su doble función como sujeto y objeto de dicha renovación. Un microcosmos de la nación argentina, la familia era percibida como la base fundamental de la sociedad, garante del bienestar civil de la nación y, como tal, fue concebida como una aliada importante del Estado autoritario en su lucha por la restauración de los valores ‘tradicionales’ de Argentina. El análisis se enfoca en los esfuerzos del régimen cívico-militar para crear un modelo normativo de familia, que se convertiría en la única versión legítima de la familia argentina, así como en el extenso repertorio de estrategias utilizadas para imponerlo a la población argentina.
Portuguese abstract
Em 24 de março de 1976, uma junta militar depôs a presidente María Estela Martínez de Perón e assumiu o poder na Argentina. Desde os primeiros dias após a deposição, as autoridades trabalharam vigorosamente para restaurar o que consideravam como legítimos valores argentinos. Este artigo demonstra como a família se tornou um ponto focal dos esforços do governo por causa de sua dupla função como agente e alvo de renovação. Microcosmo da nação argentina, a família era considerada o alicerce básico da sociedade, garantidora do bem-estar cívico da nação e, como tal, importante aliada do Estado autoritário na luta pela restauração dos valores argentinos ‘tradicionais’. A análise se concentra nos esforços do regime cívico-militar para criar um cânone familiar, que se tornaria a única versão legítima da família argentina, e no amplo repertório de estratégias utilizadas para impô-lo à população argentina.
Keywords
military government Argentina – El Procesoeducational policiesschool curriculumRevista BillikenRamón ‘Palito’ Ortegafamily policiesgobierno militar en Argentina - El Procesopolíticas educativascurrículo escolarRevista BillikenRamón ‘Palito’ Ortegapolíticas familiaresgoverno militar Argentina - El Procesopolíticas educacionaiscurrículo escolarRevista BillikenRamón ‘Palito’ Ortegapolíticas familiares
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
1 President Perón was removed from office and replaced by a military junta consisting of representatives from the three armed forces. The first junta consisted of General Videla (Army), Admiral Massera (Navy) and Brigadier Agosti (Air Force).
2 Estado Mayor General del Ejército (Army General Staff, hereafter EMGE), Compendio de documentos del Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (Buenos Aires: Agencia Periodística CID, 1976), p. 12. Emphasis used in the original document.
3 The number of people disappeared during El Proceso remains controversial and figures oscillate between 8,000 and 30,000 people. In 1984, President Alfonsín appointed a blue-ribbon commission to investigate the human-rights violations committed during the military regime. The Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, CONADEP) reported 8,960 cases of missing individuals. Human-rights organisations in Argentina contested this figure and argued that the numbers reached 30,000 people. Scholars and human-rights organisations have written about the politics of counting and the difficulties involved in establishing a clear estimate on the numbers of people disappeared during Argentina's last military dictatorship. See, for example, Brysk, Alison, ‘The Politics of Measurement: The Contested Count of the Disappeared in Argentina’, Human Rights Quarterly, 16: 4 (1994), pp. 676–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 See, for example, Andersen, Martin, Dossier Secreto: Argentina's Desaparecidos and the Myth of the ‘Dirty War’ (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Brennan, James P., Argentina's Missing Bones: Revising the History of the Dirty War (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guest, Iain, Behind the Disappearances: Argentina's Dirty War against Human Rights and the United Nations (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Marchak, Patricia, God's Assassins: State Terrorism in Argentina in the 1970s (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; and Novaro, Marcos and Palermo, Vicente, La dictadura militar, 1976−1983: Del golpe de estado a la restauración democrática (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2003)Google Scholar.
5 See, for example, Munú Actis, Cristina Aldini, Liliana Gardella, Miriam Lewin and Elisa Tokar, That Inferno: Conversations of Five Women Survivors of an Argentine Torture Camp (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006); Marguerite Feitlowitz, A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Hugo Quiroga and César Tcach, A veinte años del golpe: Con memoria democrática (Rosario: Homos Sapiens, 1996); Antonius C. G. M. Robben, Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005); and Hugo Vezzetti, Pasado y presente: Guerra, dictadura y sociedad en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2002).
6 The role attributed to the family during El Proceso bears some similarities with Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy as both regimes exalted the role of the family in the construction of the new order. Families became targets of policies that intended to transform them into institutions that served the state and provided a tool for state intervention into the private sphere. Both regimes set themselves to expunge the elements that were perceived as legacies from the past while at the same time forging a new public-minded family that accepted its patriotic duty and the authority of the Nazi and fascist states. However, whereas in Argentina the authorities identified the family as an equal partner to restore the traditional order, Nazi and fascist policies subordinated the family to the state and transformed it into a vehicle of state policy. In contrast to Argentina, both regimes prioritised the reproductive rather than the educational role of the family. The promotion of large families in Germany and Italy became not only an instrument to increase the population but also an important eugenic tool. The strong linkage between the idea of family and the idea of race in both regimes represents an important difference with the Argentine case. See Victoria de Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992); and Lisa Pine, Nazi Family Policy, 1933–1945 (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 1997).
7 Robben, Political Violence and Trauma, p. 296.
8 A feature peculiar to many twentieth-century dictatorships was the concern with moulding the minds of the younger generations and their reliance on a number of different tools. Similar to Argentina, Germany and Italy were engaged in the project of creating a new man and sought to reform their respective educational systems for the political indoctrination of the youth. However, in Italy and Germany indoctrination was reinforced with mobilisation through youth movements. These state-sponsored organisations were seen as superior instruments to indoctrinate the youth in the values, beliefs and attitudes considered essential for the future existence of the nation. The educational system was not the only instrument used to infiltrate social spaces. As was the case in Argentina, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy relied on mass means of communication to extend their grip into the private sphere. Scholars have pointed out how Hitler and Mussolini used radio to disseminate their messages to the larger population through periodic broadcasts that reiterated the most important elements of Nazi and fascist ideology. For more on these topics, see Eden McLean, Mussolini's Children: Race and Elementary Education in Fascist Italy (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2018); Lisa Pine, Education in Nazi Germany (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic: 2010); and Alessio Ponzio, Shaping the New Man: Youth Training Regimes in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (Wisconsin, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015).
9 Judith Filc, Entre el parentesco y la política: Familia y dictadura, 1976–1983 (Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2014).
10 The military authorities were aware of the important role that schools played as socialising agents in both formal (curriculum, rules of behaviour, appearance) and informal settings (peer-to-peer communication, teacher–student relations, clubs and associations). For studies that have focused specifically on educational policy during El Proceso, see Daniel Filmus and Graciela Frigerio, Educación, autoritarismo y democracia (Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila, 1988); Hernán Invernizzi and Judith Gociol, Un golpe a los libros: Represión y cultura durante la última dictadura militar (Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2002); Pablo Pineau, Marcelo Mariño, Nicolás Arata and Belén Mercado, El principio del fin: Políticas y memorias de la educación en la última dictadura militar (1976–1983) (Buenos Aires: Colihue, 2006); Adriana Puiggrós, Qué pasó en la educación argentina: Breve historia desde la conquista hasta el presente (Buenos Aires: Galerna, 2009); and Juan Carlos Tedesco, Cecilia Braslavsky and Ricardo Carciofi, El proyecto educativo autoritario: Argentina, 1976–1982 (Buenos Aires: FLACSO, 1983).
11 For studies that have focused on the history curriculum during El Proceso, see Rodríguez, Laura, ‘La historia que debía enseñarse durante la última dictadura militar’, Antítesis, 2: 3 (2009)Google Scholar; Luis Alberto Romero, La Argentina en la escuela: La idea de nación en los textos escolares (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2004); and Zysman, Nadia, ‘La militarización del ámbito educativo: La última dictadura militar argentina y su vínculo con la historia escolar, 1976–1983’, Latin American Research Review, 51: 3 (2016), pp. 47–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 María Vergara, Silence, Order, Obedience and Discipline: The Educational Discourse of the Argentinean Military Regime (1976–1983) (Lund: Lund University Press, 1997).
13 For studies on the role played by Editorial Atlántida during El Proceso, see Borrelli, Marcelo and Gago, María Paula, ‘Prepararse para un nuevo ciclo histórico: La revista Somos durante los primeros años de la dictadura militar (1976–1978)’, Rihumso, 2: 5 (2014), pp. 15–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Eduardo Blaustein and Martín Zubieta, Decíamos ayer: La prensa argentina bajo el Proceso (Buenos Aires: Colihue, 1998); and Eduardo Varela Cid (ed.), Los sofistas y la prensa canalla (Córdoba: El Cid, 1984).
14 Paula Guitelman, La infancia en dictadura: Modernidad y conservadurismo en el mundo de Billiken (Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2006).
15 For studies on Argentine cinematography during El Proceso, see Judith Gociol and Hernán Invernizzi, Cine y dictadura: La censura al desnudo (Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual, 2006); Fernando Varea, El cine argentino durante la última dictadura militar (Rosario: Editorial Municipal, 2006); and Sergio Wolf (ed.), Cine argentino, la otra historia (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Letra Buena, 1994).
16 The military authorities focused on specific groups that were perceived as the most dangerous to Argentina's national traditions, such as trade unions, youth and student organisations, intellectuals and avant-garde artists.
17 Although the junta blamed the last Peronist government as the origin of the challenges to ‘traditional Argentine values’, Valeria Manzano's work has demonstrated that challenges to traditional social structures had started in the mid-1950s. The analysis places the youth as the most dynamic actor of the two decades that followed the Revolución Libertadora (1955). Their political radicalisation and cultural rebellion challenged authority and attempted to bring radical changes to Argentine society. Valeria Manzano, The Age of Youth in Argentina: Culture, Politics, and Sexuality from Perón to Videla (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).
18 The four foundational documents of El Proceso were issued on 24 March 1976, and consist of the ‘Acta para el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional [Act for the National Reorganisation Process]’, the ‘Bases para la intervención de las Fuerzas Armadas en el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional [Fundamentals for the Intervention of the Armed Forces in the National Reorganisation Process]’, the ‘Proclama de los Comandantes [Commanders’ Proclamation]’, and the ‘Estatuto para el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional [Statute for the National Reorganisation Process]’.
19 EMGE, Compendio de documentos, p. 5.
20 The ‘war against subversion’, a priority in the military agenda, was understood as the eradication of a wide range of ‘internal enemies’ who threatened Argentine traditions and institutions. The military authorities defined ‘subversive’ in very broad terms as anybody who harboured ideas against the nation. The vagueness of the definition allowed the regime to persecute not only those who took up arms against the nation but also anybody who manifested any dissent. As Invernizzi and Gociol have pointedly argued, ‘everything that was Marxist was subversive, but not everything that was subversive was necessarily Marxist’. Invernizzi and Gociol, Un golpe a los libros, p. 50.
21 EMGE, Marxismo y subversión: Ámbito educativo (Buenos Aires: EMGE, 1976), p. 7.
22 EMGE, Compendio de documentos, p. 4.
23 The military government targeted all three levels of education, imposing significant curricular and administrative reforms on the university system as well.
24 EMGE, Marxismo y subversión, p. 18.
25 Ibid., p. 17.
26 A similar brochure was also distributed to managers and employers that included the same content with minor adaptations made for the workplace. EMGE, Marxismo y subversión: Ámbito laboral (Buenos Aires: EMGE, 1976).
27 Ricardo Bruera was the military regime's first minister of education. A teacher and expert in pedagogy, he served from March 1976 to May 1977.
28 Ricardo Bruera, ‘Discurso pronunciado por S.E. el señor Ministro por cadena nacional de radio y TV’, 13 April 1976, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, document EL001719, Centro Nacional de Documentación e Información Educativa (National Centre for Educational Documentation and Information, CeNIDE), Biblioteca Nacional de Maestros y Maestras (National Teachers’ Library, BNM), available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL001719.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
29 Ricardo Bruera, ‘Mensaje del Ministro de Cultura y Educación Prof. Ricardo P. Bruera con motivo del Día del Maestro’, 11 Sept. 1976, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, document EL000034, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL000034.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
30 Ricardo Bruera, ‘Formación Cívica. Finalidad. Exposición del señor Ministro de Cultura y Educación Prof. Ricardo Pedro Bruera’, 9 Sept. 1976, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, document EL000100, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL000100.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
31 Ricardo Bruera, ‘Iniciación del curso lectivo 1977. Mensaje del Sr. Ministro de Cultura y Educación Prof. Ricardo Pedro Bruera’, 7 March 1977, document EL000019, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL000019.pdf, last access 6 Oct 2021.
32 Juan José Catalán was the military regime's second minister of education. A lawyer and politician, he served from June 1977 to Aug. 1978.
33 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, Subversión en el ámbito educativo (Conozcamos a nuestro enemigo) (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, 1977), p. 6. The document has no author so it was likely the result of a collaboration among different ideologues of the regime. According to Resolution 538, the contents of the brochure were to be presented to all pupils at the secondary-school level.
34 Ibid., p. 60.
35 Ibid., pp. 12–18.
36 Juan Rafael Llerena Amadeo was the military regime's third minister of education. A lawyer and professor of law, he served from Nov. 1978 to March 1981.
37 Juan Rafael Llerena Amadeo, ‘Respuestas del Ministro de Cultura y Educación a las preguntas de la Cámara Argentina de Anunciantes’, 10 May 1979, document EL000024, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL000024.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
38 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación − Secretaría de Estado de Educación, Documentos de apoyo para padres: Hábitos de estudio, ciclo básico, 1979 (Buenos Aires: CeNIDE, 1979), p. 1.
39 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación − Secretaría de Estado de Educación, Documento de apoyo para padres: Clima afectivo y aprendizaje (Buenos Aires: CeNIDE, 1980).
40 The civics curriculum became a contested space in the Argentine educational system during the second half of the twentieth century. The programme was created in the late nineteenth century and was incorporated to the secondary-school curriculum as ‘Instrucción Cívica’. During the administration of Juan Domingo Perón it was renamed ‘Doctrina Nacional y Cultura Ciudadana’. The 1955 military coup changed the content and renamed the subject ‘Doctrina Nacional y Educación Democrática’. In 1973, the democratic government created a new subject and named it ‘Estudios de la Realidad Social Argentina (ERSA)’. For more on changes to the school curriculum, see Romero, La Argentina en la escuela.
41 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, ‘Aprobar las pautas para la fijación de contenidos de ERSA’, 31 March 1976, document RM 3-76, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/normas/RM_3-76.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
42 The academic year in Argentina extends from March to December. The coup took place a few weeks after the school year had started so changes to the curriculum were to take place fast and in conjunction with the school year.
43 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, ‘Formación Cívica. Decreto 1.259/76’, 8 July 1976, document EL004038, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL004038.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
44 The religious undertones of the revamped curriculum (in addition to Minister Llerena Amadeo's devout Catholic beliefs) created significant distress among evangelical groups who suspected the authorities were moving towards the incorporation of mandatory Catholic instruction in the public school system. The minister met with these groups on several occasions to reaffirm that the government had no intentions to incorporate religious instruction into the public school curriculum.
45 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, Guías para la enseñanza de Formación Cívica en el ciclo básico (Buenos Aires: CeNIDE, 1976).
46 The guides were intended to provide classroom content until updated textbooks could be published. By 1978, publishers had caught up and new civics textbooks were available to the public.
47 Juan Rafael Llerena Amadeo, ‘Discurso pronunciado en el Acto de las Escuelas Cristianas Evangélicas’, 11 Aug. 1979, document EL000136, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, CeNIDE, BNM, available at www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL000139.pdf, last access 6 Oct. 2021.
48 EMGE, Marxismo y subversión, p. 19.
49 Ibid. Although it is translated as ‘parents’, in the original document the term used is ‘viejos’, which was an informal term used to address parents that became popular in the late 1960s. Quotation marks used in original document.
50 In his 1976 speech to commemorate Argentine independence, General Videla commented on the role of subversive ideologies in the promotion of what he defined as ‘anti-values’, such as betrayal, crime, cruelty and family disruption. Along the same lines, the brochure Marxismo y subversión identified the family as a ‘primordial target of “subversive” forces’ that penetrated the home and ‘derided fundamental [family] values such as honour, loyalty, love, heroism, and abnegation’. Educational authorities added their voices to the military anxieties over lost family values. In 1977, during the inauguration of the academic year, Minister Bruera expressed concern over the erosion of paternal authority and the disruption of family life, and stressed the need for the school system to remedy the situation. EMGE, Compendio de documentos, p. 54; EMGE, Marxismo y subversión, p. 19; and Ricardo Bruera, ‘Iniciación del curso lectivo 1977’.
51 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, Estrategias para la enseñanza de Formación Cívica (Buenos Aires: CeNIDE, 1976), p. 9.
52 Textbooks also highlighted the role of other institutions, such as the church and the army, which collaborated with the family in their pedagogical mission.
53 César Reinaldo García and Apolinar Edgardo García, Formación Cívica: Segundo curso (Buenos Aires: Sainte Claire Editora, 1979), pp. 27–41.
54 For example, in a piece about immigration, Billiken encouraged children to talk to their grandparents about their family histories. Billiken, 2 Oct. 1979, p. 14.
55 Emilio Massera, El camino a la democracia (Barcelona: El Cid, 1979), pp. 88–90; and ‘Carta abierta a los padres argentinos’, Gente, Buenos Aires, 16 Dec. 1976, p. 34.
56 Angela Luchenio, Formación Moral y Cívica 2 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Kapelusz, 1981), pp. 35–57.
57 García and García, Formación Cívica, p. 31.
58 Ibid., p. 32.
59 Luchenio, Formación Moral, p. 46.
60 Ibid., p. 47.
61 Ministerio de Cultura y Educación − Consejo Federal de Educación, Informe final (Buenos Aires: CeNIDE, 1976), pp. 52–3.
62 Equipo Didáctico de Editorial Kapelusz, Escuela Abierta 2: Estudios Sociales y Ciencias (Buenos Aires: Editorial Kapelusz, 1978), pp. 6–8.
63 Conozcamos a nuestro enemigo recognised the role played by the media to assist Marxist penetration into the educational system.
64 The regime relied on a number of agencies to control the media, such as the Secretaría de Información Pública [Secretariat of Public Information, SIP], the Secretaría de Prensa y Difusión [Secretariat of Press], the Secretaría de Comunicaciones [Federal Communication Commission, SECOM], the Agencia Nacional de Noticias [Federal News Bureau, TELAM], the Comité Federal de Radiodifusión [Federal Bureau of Radio Broadcasting, COMFER], the Dirección General de Radio y Televisión [General Bureau of Radio and Television], the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía [National Institute of Cinematography, INC], the Ente de Calificación Cinematográfica [Classification and Rating Bureau], and the list goes on. The individuals in charge of these agencies were members of the armed forces and they were tasked with regulating content, preventing dissent and reinforcing the military cultural and social agendas.
65 Llerena Amadeo, ‘Discurso pronunciado en el Acto de las Escuelas Cristianas Evangélicas’.
66 Luchenio, Formación Moral, p. 49
67 ‘Carta abierta a los padres argentinos’, Gente, Buenos Aires, 16 Dec. 1976, p. 34.
68 This was not the only piece in the magazine calling on the authorities to revise the curriculum. In 1978 Gente published a letter to the minister of education titled: ‘Dr. Catalán, this should worry you’. The letter expressed relief about the successful end of the war against ‘subversion’ but warned the educational authorities about the other war, the one waged at the ideological level. The author presented two history textbooks that ‘used language and presented ideas that were too similar to the ideologies of Marxist subversion’. To support the claim, the article quoted phrases that were considered as dangerous to students’ minds. For example, ‘Economic liberalism and the Industrial Revolution created a new social structure in which the worker became a slave who was expected to passively accept the situation’ or ‘The new urban proletariat, facing inequality and low salaries, can barely survive’. The author urged the authorities to act quickly to control and correct the situation. Varela Cid, Los sofistas, p. 76.
69 Billiken, 27 Nov. 1979, p. 35.
70 Billiken, 6 May 1980, p. 43.
71 Billiken, 6 March 1979, p. 12. The school chosen to contribute to this piece was Colegio Numen. Located in the city of Buenos Aires, the institution was founded in 1970 and since its early days it supported the values of discipline, hard work, order and hygiene.
72 Billiken, 13 March 1979, p. 23.
73 Billiken, 29 May 1979, p. 17.
74 Gociol and Invernizzi, Cine y dictadura, p. 43.
75 Ramón ‘Palito’ Ortega, Las locuras del profesor, 1979, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBvdqIZYATQ, last access 21 Sept. 2021.
76 Ramón ‘Palito’ Ortega, Vivir con alegría, 1979, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ1Vo8OjcUo, last access 21 Sept. 2021.
77 Ramón ‘Palito’ Ortega, El tío disparate, 1978, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5d_BWHC3Mg, last access 21 Sept. 2021.
78 Ramón ‘Palito’ Ortega, Dos locos en el aire, 1976, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kqLRcu1XfI, last access 21 Sept. 2021; and Brigada en acción, 1977, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOtZaU6fv_4, last access 21 Sept. 2021.
79 Ramón ‘Palito’ Ortega, ¡Qué linda es mi familia!, 1980, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un9rcacGQP8, last access 21 Sept. 2021.
80 Ortega, Las locuras del profesor.
81 Filc, Entre el parentesco; Garaño, Santiago and Pertot, Werner, Detenidos-Aparecidos: Presas y presos políticos desde Trelew a la dictadura (Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2007)Google Scholar; Bouvard, Marguerite Guzman, Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1994)Google Scholar; Htun, Mala, Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Elizabeth Jelin, ‘The Family in Argentina: Modernity, Economic Crisis, and Politics’, in Bert N. Adams and Jan Trost (eds.), Handbook of World Families (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004), pp. 391–413.
82 The return to a democratic government opened a new chapter in family discourses and policies in Argentina. Since the 1980s, the government has introduced changes to family law that regulated the rights of minors, adoption, domestic violence and civil unions. A major change to marriage legislation took place in 1987 with the legalisation of divorce. Another major milestone in family policies was achieved in 2010 with the legalisation of same-sex marriage, making Argentina the first nation in Latin America to do so.