Nora de Cortiñas and Margarita Peralta de Gropper, founders of the Madres of Plaza de Mayo -- also known as the "Mothers of the Disappeared" -- will give their personal accounts of the movement during a talk titled "Participatory Democracy in Argentina: Perspectives from the Madres of Plaza de Mayo" Tuesday, April 10 at 12:15 p.m. in 153 Uris Hall on the Cornell University campus.

The women also will speak off-campus April 10 at 8 p.m. in the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, 318 N. Albany Street, in Ithaca. Back on campus, Wednesday, April 11, a documentary film titled Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo will be shown followed by a discussion led by the visiting speakers at 8 p.m. in Uris Hall Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public.

The Madres of Plaza de Mayo are the mothers of many of the more than 30,000 desaparecidos (disappeared ones), who were abducted, tortured and then presumably murdered by members of Argentina's military dictatorships during a period from 1976 to 1983. Madres of Plaza de Mayo is committed to fighting for the rights and memory of the disappeared. The mothers' courageous struggle has become a symbol for human rights in Latin America and a source of inspiration for women throughout the continent in the fight for democracy.

Events are sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program (LASP) at Cornell. For more information, contact Mary Jo Dudley at LASP, (607) 255-3345.