I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared [Paperback]

Eric Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 1996

In 1977 'Julia' became one of the 30,000 victims of Argentina's most recent military dictatorship. Julia was a young physician and mother-to-be kidnapped from a medical clinic and found years later in a clandestine grave along with 334 other corpses. Who were these thousands of victims? Who was Julia? By reconstructing the life of one victim, Eric Stener Carlson gives voice to the thousands of citizens who were 'disappeared'. Ironically, in doing so, he must use the pseudonym 'Julia' for this young woman to protect the people she left behind. The pieces of Julia's story come together through the emotional and poignant memories of those who knew her - childhood friends and family, classmates and colleagues, an ex-lover, and fellow prisoners whose lives intersected with hers in the government torture centers. Interspersed between the personal testimonies are the voices of others who give her story a political and social context. They include a military general, a priest, a politician, a human rights activist, and a prosecuting attorney in the war crimes tribunal. Carlson creates a personalized account that addresses not only the atrocities of Argentina's Dirty War, but human rights transgressions throughout Latin America and the world. It is impossible to read this story and not come away with a profound sense of human tragedy and personal suffering associated with repressive government policies everywhere. Author note: Eric Stener Carlson is a Fellow of Physicians for Human Rights, working with the "War Crimes Tribunal" for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. He previously spent two years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a Fulbright Scholar conducting research and interviews for this book.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Between 1976 and 1982 thousands of Argentines, mostly young adults, lost their lives while being held as political prisoners by the military government. Their deaths gained international attention after the end of the military dictatorship owing in large measure to the activities of the group "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo." In 1991, the author worked as a volunteer for the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which excavated mass graves and identified victims. One of the victims, a young doctor and expecting mother, became the subject of this volume. The author spent two years interviewing family and friends in order to tell Julia's story. The result is a riveting and compelling study of a promising young Argentine whose life was cut short because she was perceived as a threat to the military government. Carlson tells a poignant and unforgettable story that is probably similar to stories of the thousands who also lost their lives during this period. It is valuable for any collection with interest in Latin America or human rights.?Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A somber tale of murder and a kind of resurrection from the country that made ``to disappear'' a transitive verb. Eric Stener Carlson went to Argentina as a member of a forensics team that identified the remains of some of the 30,000 victims of the military dictatorship of the 1970s and early '80s. (That dictatorship fell following Argentina's defeat in the Falklands War.) In one of the country's estimated 340 death camps, in a graveyard ``covered by years of garbage tossed over the cemetery wall by neighbors,'' he found a skeleton whose skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast. Thanks to the fact that her orthodontist had presciently kept records of all patients who had disappeared during the so-called Dirty War, ``Skeleton #17'' eventually became ``Julia,'' who had been murdered in 1977. In Carlson's hands, Julia is at once a real person--a medical student, as it happens, seemingly destined for a brilliant career--and a composite, ``an opinion, an idea that lives in people's minds,'' as much as a much-missed member of the young intelligentsia who unwisely expressed leftist views to the wrong audience. She and her peers come to life in oral remembrances gathered from schoolmates, relatives, civil-rights activists, and even members of the military; their recollections range from the prosaic to the profound. The conversations he records touch on but do not deeply delve into the atmosphere of terror that once pervaded Argentina, and the silences often outweigh what is spoken; ``we were afraid,'' one survivor of the time says with elegant simplicity. By giving voice to that terrible era, Carlson offers a touching memorial to a ravaged generation whose murderers have recently been pardoned by presidential decree. One hopes that Julia's child--she was pregnant at the time of her disappearence, and the forensics indicate that she gave birth before being murdered--will one day learn something of her mother through these pages. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (June 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566394376
• ISBN-13: 978-1566394376
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law > Human Rights
  • #32 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Argentina
  • #79 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Hispanic & Latino

More About the Author

Eric Stener Carlson (Minnesota, 1969) is the author of "I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared" (Temple University Press, 1996) and "The Pear Tree: Is Torture Ever Justified?" (Clarity Press, 2006). His work has appeared in journals in the US, UK, Argentina and Spain.

Eric's first novel is coming out in September 2009: "The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires" (Tartarus Press).

Eric holds a BA in International Affairs from The American University, an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. A former Fulbright scholar, Eric frequently lectures on issues of torture and human rights and is always happy to give talks to book clubs and universities.

Eric travels frequently but always returns to his small flat in Buenos Aires, and his heart will always and forever be in Argentina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why did this have to happen?, April 5, 2000

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Aimee (Normal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared (Paperback)

This book deals with political, religious, and social aspects of the military coup that occoured in Argentina from 1976-1982. The book talks of a young female medical doctor and her husband who were kidnapped. At the time of their disappearance the young woman was two months pregnant. The young girls mother talks of the woman. As she finishes her thoughts she adds that she wonders if one of the children that she sees on the streets everyday may be her granddaughter or grandson. The mother of this woman also talks about how no one would help her in her search to find her daughter. The church would not even help, because some of the priests felt that the actions that the government was taking were not wrong. Not all priests felt this way however, and many died because they did not follow the military policies. The author of this book interviews numerous people that Julia knew over the course of her short life. Everyone that the author talks to remembers Julia as a loving and caring person. Some of the people even said that after the first night they met her they were best friends allready. She was a honet, loving, and caring person, and that in itself may have been what cost her her life. The day that her body was discovered must have been horrible. Her body was found in Avellaneda. This is the mass grave of the disappeared. When she was discovered her body was referred to as #17, because they had no way of knowing who she was. The only way that they were able to identify the girls body was because she had had heart surgery, and because she had bad teeth, and a mark on her pelvis common in women who have children. It is terrible that this happened to one person, let alone to the estimated 30,000 that suffered through this. Julia's story is not the only one told in this book. Luis Brandoni a professional actor was a member of a union, and received death threats. There are also many are others who share stories in this book. This book is well written, and if you are interested at all in this subject you should read it! Another good book that deals with this is called Circle of Love over death by Matilde Mellibovsky