Mothers Of The Disappeared

it has little to do with chile, as x__maggie says is about the madres of plaza de mayo. Tha mothers of more than 30,000 people hat dissapeared during the military regimen (1976-1983) in Argentina. This amazin women were brave and confronted the regime and started searching ther sons and daughters and also their sons and daughters that were kidnapped too. There is, actually, another organization called Grandmothers of plaza de mayo that search the grandchilds. Chile suffered a military regime(Pinochet) too, but it is not known for the braveness of the mothers that loose their children, neither has chile an organization such as mothers of plaza de mayo.

Also i recomend the movie"la historia oficial" that won an oscar as Best Foreign Language Film if anyone is interested by the theme.

This song is most definitely focused on the prisoners of the Dirty War in Argentina- not about the Chilean Regime. It is an incredible song (what on the Joshua Tree isn't?). The rhythym and everything is just perfect, and Bono's singing and the instrumental just hits home.

Its actually about the Guerra Sucia in Argentina from 1976-1983. The dictator, I think his name was Vidal, took the children of the people who disagreed with him, killed their fathers, and beat the women. The "Mothers of the Disappeared" refers to the Madres/Abuelas de la Plaza Mayo.

if you want to watch more on the topic, there's a really good movie called 'la historia official' and its worth watching. we watched it in spanish class and it's about a teacher coming to grips with the reality of what is happening.

and i saw u2 today at the clinton libray opening and even though i was freezing cold and wet i thought bono was amazing.

to rossclark: it's true, pinochet's regime was NOT communist. But that doesn't make his regime any better. You make it sound like it was the dissapeared's own fault that they were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the government. Let me tell you what: Salvador Allende was the one that made sure every single child in the country would be provided milk. He may as well have ended poverty in Chile if the whole thing hadn't happened. The capitalist world may have decided pinochet was the best thing that could happen to the country, but why don't you tell the mothers of the disappeared that? I know so many people that lost relatives to the military government - why don't you tell them how right it was that pinochet took over and made our country suffer? huh? My uncle was arrested, my parents went through a lot thanks to the curfew - maybe it would have been a lot better if Allende's government had prevailed.

and to vschtyle: what the hell?

You guys got it all wrong. It doesn't talk about Chile. It's about Argentina and the Mothers of Plaza the Mayo, whose children were taken from them, tortured and killed. Babies were also taken from their families and given to those who suported the military regimen. These mothers still want justice for what was done to their families, to their children. Yet justice is still not being done, and it's now 30 years since the military took charge here in Argentina.This is what the song is about, there is no doubt about it. Plus, I went to the show U2 made here in Buenos Aires, Argentina in March and at the end, he thanked the Mothers of Plaza the Mayo he had invited for attending.

For more information about the song, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Disappeared

I always wondered about the story behind this song...very sad set of events, but I have to hand it U2 for putting something like this together...even though it's sad...it symbolizes that those souls aren't forgotten.

I think that it is because of this song that Sting was able to write "They Dance Alone" and put it on Nothing Like the Sun. Same topic.

Muffinorwak, I think that probably vschtyle's interpretation is not as important as the political message but if you can read it both ways, then good. It's always important to acknowledge that people have different ways of reading things, some political, some personal. It's up to you to decide when to use the word 'wrong' about an interpretation but I hope you won't have to use it too often.

I never said the interpretation was wrong, I found it a very unusual way to look at this song. I think if you read the rest of my last post you can deduce I was extremely pissed off at that time. and anyway, what I meant was, that's a different way to look at it, I hadn't thought of that at all.