Victoria Donda
| Victoria Donda | |
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National Deputy for Buenos Aires Province |
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Assumed office December 2007 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1977 Buenos Aires |
| Political party |
Freemen of the South Broad Progressive Front |
Victoria Analía Donda Pérez (born 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine human rights activist and legislator. She is the first daughter of a "disappeared" person, born in captivity, to become a member of the Argentine National Congress. She was the youngest woman to hold that office.
She was born in 1977, in the notorious clandestine detention center called ESMA in Buenos Aires while her mother, María Hilda Pérez de Donda, was "disappeared" for her leftist activity. Her father, José María Laureano Donda, was also held in captivity during the same time. Both remain disappeared and are presumed to have been killed during that period. She is one of approximately 500 children known to have been born to disappeared political prisoners during Argentina's Dirty War (1976–1983), who were kidnapped and registered under false identities.
After her mother was killed, Victoria was handed over to another family, who raised her but never told her about her biological parents. Her case is particularly unusual because her paternal uncle, Adolfo Miguel Donda Tigel (her father's brother), was a naval officer who was one of the primary individuals responsible for ESMA, and participated in the imprisonment, torture, and killing of her parents.
In 2003, when she was 26 years of age, Victoria Donda discovered her true identity after communicating with the group H.I.J.O.S. (Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against Oblivion and Silence) and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
Despite that, even knowing that her real mother was one of the ESMA disappeared, for a long time she was reluctant to have her DNA tested in order to find out who her biological parents were.
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Wikipedia