A Flower Traveled in My Blood
by Haley Cohen GillilandSetting: Argentina
Genres: History / Latin America / South America
Length: 13:31
Published on July 15, 2025
Pages: 512
Format: Audiobook Source: Library
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction
A remarkable new talent in narrative nonfiction delivers the epic true story of a group of courageous grandmothers who fought to find their grandchildren who were stolen.In the early hours of March 24, 1976, the streets of Buenos Aires rumble with tanks as soldiers seize the presidential palace and topple Argentina’s leader. The country is now under the control of a military junta, with army chief Jorge Rafael Videla at the helm. With quiet support from the United States and tacit approval from much of Argentina’s people, who are tired of constant bombings and gunfights, the junta swiftly launches the National Reorganization Process or El Proceso—a bland name masking their ruthless campaign to crush the political left and instill the country with “Western, Christian” values. The junta holds power until 1983 and decimates a generation.
One of the military’s most diabolical acts is kidnapping hundreds of pregnant women. After giving birth in captivity, the women are “disappeared,” and their babies secretly given to other families—many of them headed by police or military officers. For mothers of pregnant daughters and daughters-in-law, the source of their grief is twofold—the disappearances of their children, and the theft of their grandchildren. A group of fierce grandmothers forms the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them. At a time when speaking out could mean death, the Abuelas confront military officers and launch protests to reach international diplomats and journalists. They become detectives, adopting disguises to observe suspected grandchildren, and even work alongside a renowned American scientist to pioneer groundbreaking genetic tests.
A Flower Traveled in My Bloodis the rarest of nonfiction that reads like a novel and puts your heart in your throat. It is the product of years of extensive archival research and meticulous, original reporting. It marks the arrival of a blazing new talent in narrative journalism. In these pages, a regime tries to terrorize a country, but love prevails. The grandmothers’ stunning stories reveal new truths about memory, identity, and family.
It took me a few tries to get into this book. I started with it in paper book form and it just didn’t work for me. I was interested in the topic but couldn’t make myself sit down with it. I thought that it might work better for me as an audiobook. It turns out that was the correct move. Once I started listening to this book I didn’t want to stop.
The book goes deep into the history of Argentina in the twentieth century to give you the background you need to understand the disappearances. Many people were kidnapped in the mid to late 1970s. Most were killed. Some of them were pregnant women. For some reason the government felt that it was wrong to hurt pregnant women so they were held until they gave birth. Then the babies were taken and the women were killed.
The mothers of the Disappeared banded together to form the Madres de Plaza de Mayo to protest. A subgroup was the Abuelas, who had pregnant daughters who were taken. They also wanted to try to find their missing grandchildren.
At the time genetic testing was in its infancy. A lot of the techniques used now were pioneered to be used in Argentina to reunite families.
There are a lot of ethical questions in this book.
- Who does the child belong to – the biological family or the family who raised them?
- Does that answer change based on whether or not the adoptive family knew that the child was kidnapped?
- Does the child have a say?
- As the children grew into adulthood, could they be forced to give DNA in order to potentially prosecute their adoptive parents?
- Should a country forget their past in order to move on or should they prosecute past crimes even if it keeps the country in turmoil?
One family in particular was focused on in order to show how this worked. A couple was taken when they had a young daughter and the wife was pregnant. The daughter was dropped off with a relative. Her abuelas became part of the group searching for the grandchild who they had never met. It was not an easy road. Even after finding each other, the story didn’t have easy answers.
This is a compelling book that makes you wonder why people seem to constantly feel the need to be cruel to each other. Why can’t people try to let their ideas speak for them and persuade people instead of resorting to violence to keep a hold on power?
The abuelas were amazing women. Several worked until their nineties and beyond to reunite families. Their stories deserve to be more widely known. This book is a great start.
