El Artículo de Leslie (A1)

During our unit on Argentina’s military dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s, students read a short novel called Guerra Sucia. As written on the its back cover, this book is about a journalist from the United States who “travels to Argentina to investigate the suspicious disappearance of Raúl…When Leslie discovers that Raúl, along with tens of thousands of other suspected dissidents, has suffered horrific atrocities at the hands of the Argentine government, she finds herself in a life-altering series of events.” The book ends abruptly with the abduction of Leslie, who never had the chance to write her article. As such, students took the opportunity to write the article that Leslie never got to write. Assuming the perspective of Leslie, students detailed her investigations, reporting on the political changes that led to these horrific events as well as the organizations working to help restore justice in 1977 Argentina.

Mary Alice: I had never learned about the Dirty War before or in any other class, so this unit was very eye-opening. The book we read was an interesting blend of fiction as well as details from historical events, and getting to write a short article that also combined these two aspects was interesting and informative.

Zayna: This project taught me more about how journalists put their lives on the line when they spoke up against the dictatorship. Even though the book was fiction, many of the events that Leslie went through actually happened to journalists reporting on the Dirty War.