TEXT ON SCREEN:
HUNDREDS OF BABIES DISAPPEARED DURING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP IN ARGENTINA IN THE 1970s AND 80s

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA WAS ONE OF THEM

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: Half of my life, I knew who I was, and the other half, I didn’t. .

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MANUEL WAS NINE MONTHS OLD WHEN HE WAS ADOPTED AND GIVEN THE NAME OF CLAUDIO.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: They had always told me that I was an adopted child.
What I didn’t know was why I had been given up for adoption.

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HE WOULD FIND OUT, AT THE AGE OF 19, WHEN SOMEONE FROM THE ARGENTINE FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY TEAM KNOCKED ON HIS DOOR.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: When they found me, I agreed to get tested immediately. Even if the history was tough, it was also giving an answer to something that I had needed to know for so long, which was why? What had happened to me before? Who were my parents?

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HIS PARENTS WERE ANA MARÍA DEL CARMEN GRANADA AND GASTÓN ROBERTO JOSÉ GONÇALVES.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: My mom and dad were murdered during the dictatorship in a military operation. I am the only survivor of that operation. I was five months old then.

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NO EFFORT WAS MADE TO RETURN MANUEL TO HIS GRANDMOTHER, WHO SPENT YEARS SEARCHING FOR HIM. INSTEAD, HE WAS GIVEN TO ANOTHER FAMILY.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: It’s hard for me sometimes to think of myself as that person who grew up thinking that was the life that belonged to me, and parallel to that, there was a whole life I could’ve had, that I should’ve had if the dictatorship hadn’t come in the middle of it.

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AND THAT LIFE NOW INCLUDES A HALF-BROTHER, AUNTS, UNCLES AND COUSINS. GRANDMOTHER WHO HAD BEEN SEARCHING FOR HIM FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: I have a very sweet relationship that began forming after the reunion and after time passed, because it’s not an immediate relationship. You find yourself with these people who you know are family, who are your blood, but the relationship and the bond is created with time.

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MANUEL NOW WORKS WITH THE GRANDMOTHERS OF THE PLAZA DE MAYO AND FOR THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE RIGHT TO IDENTITY.

MANUEL GONÇALVES GRANADA: I work in the search for all those that we’re still missing. I understand that we are part of a generation that is the best example of what you can build, having come from tragic history. And maybe we should turn ourselves into the best tool so that it never happens again.

(END)