The Daughter of the Disappeared

When Victoria Donda learned that her supposed father was accused of being a notorious torturer in Argentina and that her true parents were political prisoners, she soon unraveled a web of family secrets and lies.

Mei-Ling Hopgood in Marie Claire:

On a cold, gray August day in 2003, Victoria Donda, a 26-year-old law student, got a call from her friend Isaac. “We need to meet. It's urgent,” he said. The petite Argentine was having a hellish week. Her father had tried to kill himself and now lay comatose with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She had barely left his side since, even to shower or eat. Now, her head spinning from lack of sleep, her dark eyes swollen and red from crying, Victoria raced from the hospital to a nearby café to meet Isaac.

Earlier that week, the Argentine government had publicized allegations that her father, along with other ex-military officers, had taken part in Argentina's military dictatorship in the 1970s. He was accused of interrogating and torturing prisoners; he'd tried to commit suicide the night the news broke. Entering the café and sliding into a seat by the window, Victoria desperately hoped that Isaac, a friend from her volunteer work, would tell her the charges had been a huge mistake. Instead, he just looked at her, his eyes welling up behind his thick glasses.

“Negrita,” he said, using a term of endearment for the black-haired Victoria, “you are the daughter of a couple murdered during the dictatorship. The people who raised you aren't your parents,” he continued. She'd been kidnapped, and her identity had been changed at birth.

Victoria froze. She knew about the “children of the disappeared” — everyone in Argentina did.

More here. [Thanks to Kris Kotarski.]