Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Stolen Children

Last week I was reminded of how deeply the horrors of war can affect people. I heard a radio article about Uxenu Ablana, who was a small child when he was taken from his family during the civil war in 1930s Spain. Right-wing nationalists kidnapped him when they took over his village. His mother died – no one knows exactly how – and his father was imprisoned as a suspected leftist. Ablana grew up in orphanages, where he says he was severely abused and indoctrinated with right-wing political propaganda. The article reports that although thousands of children were stolen during Spain's civil war, the subject is still taboo in Spanish culture.

To get a better sense for the currents in contemporary Spanish culture, you might turn to Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past. Author Giles Tremlett examines, among other things, the Spanish people's reluctance to fully acknowledge and redress the wrongs of the dictatorship that ruled the country from the end of the civil war through the 1970s.  It's an eloquent history both of present-day Spain, and of the legacies of the civil war and the dictatorship.

Spain is not the only country where children have been wrested from parents who were targeted as radicals by an authoritarian regime. In 1970s Argentina, the military government “disappeared” tens of thousands of trade unionists, students, and people thought to have left-wing political views. Some of them had young children, and some women gave birth while in custody. As many as 500 children and newborns were taken from their families. Many, it is suspected, were given to military families to be raised as their own. Searching for Life, by Rita Arditti, lays out the story of the grandmothers of some of these children, who have labored tirelessly to locate their grandchildren and attempt to reunite with them.

Elsa Osorio's My Name is Light, on the other hand, is a fictional account of a disappeared child, Luz, who is searching for the truth about her own past. It is an incredible, vivid story – Luz's biological mother, who has been imprisoned as a suspected leftist for most of her preganancy, is taken to a clinic for her childbirth by a prison guard who hopes to give her baby to his girlfriend.  But just as Luz is born, a general's daughter undergoes a cesarean section that fails to save the life of her baby. The general commandeers the newborn Luz and gives her to his daughter, all the while weaving an elaborate conspiracy to cover the tracks of the adoption, and keep his daughter from ever knowing that her own child died at birth. The real narrative, though, is Luz's journey to find the truth about her biological family, as well as her adopted one.

We're Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

The New York Times recently reported that kids who are serious about saving the environment are trying to make sure the adults in their lives are environmentaly responsible too. Not that this is any surprise, really! All throughout history kids have been ready to stand up and fight the power.

In the 19th and early 20th century, tens of thousands of children in the United States worked in factories, many of them under terrible conditions. Kids on Strike!, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, shows how kids worked together to force industrial giants to treat them more fairly.

Want to read about modern-day kids who are ready to fight for what's right? Elizabeth Rusch's book Generation FIX: Young Ideas for a Better World profiles 15 young activists who took their own ideas about how to fight white supremacy, clean up the environment, and help people in need. These are stories about self-starters — kids who saw something they thought needed changing, and then jumped in with both feet to get it done.

It's Our World, Too: Young People Who are Making a Difference, by Phillip Hoose also shares stories of young people working for social change. The second half of the book provides guideance for budding rabble-rousers with D.I.Y. information on finding allies, strategizing and planning your activities, fundraising, and smart research. A chapter on how to make sure adults don't take over your struggle is especially worth reading.