Argentina’s Human Rights organization H.I.J.O.S. launched a free digital sticker album to teach youth about the historic struggle of Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, inviting to share, exchange and complete it as a collective act of memory construction.

The innovative graphic project, titled “Madres y Abuelas. El pueblo las abraza” (“Mothers and Grandmothers. The people embrace you”), was developed alongside the prominent Argentinean graphic artist Ariel Cuadra.

This launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the bloody civil-military dictatorship that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983. During this dark historical period of State terrorism, military forces carried out the systematic enforced disappearance of 30,000 people across the national territory.

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The main objective of this pedagogical initiative is to rebuild collective memory and bring Human Rights defense closer to younger generations through an accessible and 9playful format.

By utilizing the popular dynamic of collecting and exchanging physical or digital stickers, the creators aim to spark active historical conversations, combat political indifference and promote educational debates among local youth.

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Una publicación compartida de Ariel Cuadra (@_arielcuadra)

Text reads: “Mothers and Grandmothers Album: the people embrace you”. Fifty years after the coup,
this project is born as a collective exercise of memory, tribute and encounter. To the essential in democracy, present and eternal in the struggle I made an album with figurines to gather us between many hands, and make a round with memory, as they continue to do…”

A Memory Initiative

As “a collective exercise of memory, tribute and encounter”, the graphic artist and activist Ariel Cuadra described the initiative. As he remarked, the album “recovers the popular aesthetic of classic albums of Mondialist figurines to transform it into a tool of memory, truth and justice”.

“This piece places at the center the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo: essential women of our democracy, many of them already deceased, but eternal in the collective memory, and others who continue to accompany us physically in the tireless struggle for truth and justice“, he said.

Each digital piece compiles rigorous biographical data of the female leaders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. The album details their names, birth dates, and their specific family connections to those citizens targeted by forced kidnapping and disappearance under the civil-military regime.

Reclaiming Stolen Identities

In addition to honoring the historic activists, the educational tool provides detailed records regarding the grandchildren who reclaimed their true identities and those who are still being searched for by their biological relatives. Military officers kidnapped and illegally distributed approximately 500 babies who were born in captivity or seized alongside their parents during the civil-military dictatorship.

To date, exactly 140 people have successfully recovered their true identity and re-established vital biological links thanks to the persistent, decades-long search conducted by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. This ongoing process of restitution remains a major victory for civil society and a testament to the power of organized peaceful resistance against impunity.

According to the organizing committee, the traditional exchange of stickers functions as a vehicle for community building, allowing citizens to remember those who resist impunity.

The complete digital file is available for free download in PDF format on the official web portal of the Human Rights organization, urging schools, community groups and cultural centers across the country to print the material to foster debate. This launch occurs just two weeks before the beginning of the World Cup 2026, utilizing a traditional football-related hobby to promote political awareness.

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