Fanny Raquel Gvirtz de Arcuschin (1924 – 27 September 2013) was one of the founders of the

Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo () is a human rights organization with the goal of finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the National Reorganization Process, 1976–1983 Argentine military dictatorship. The president is Este ...

, a human rights organization dedicated to finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the Argentine

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

Background

Her parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and settled in the Province of San Juan. Gvirtz was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. After studying at a commercial school, she started working at an accounting firm. At 24 years old she married Elías de Arcuschin. Her sons were Miguel Sergio Archuschin and Adrián Archuschin and students at the

Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini The Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini (''Carlos Pellegrini High School of Commerce'', ESCCP) is a public high school in Buenos Aires, and it is one of the most prestigious in Argentina and Latin America. Founded on February 19, 189 ...

, one of the most prestigious high schools in Latin America. Miguel was an activist against the Argentine dictatorship and arrested with his younger brother. Adrián was a minor at the time of the arrest and released after 10 days. Miguel was never released, and is part of the ‘disappeared’ of the

Dirty War The Dirty War () is the name used by the military junta or National Reorganization Process, civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and secu ...

(Victims kidnapped, tortured and murdered whose bodies were disappeared by the military government). Miguel was last seen with his pregnant wife Noemí Jansenson at

Campo de Mayo Campo de Mayo is a military base located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, northwest of Buenos Aires. Campo de Mayo covers an area of and is one of the most important military bases in Argentina, including Argentine Army's: * Army NCO Schoo ...

, a secret detention center where newborn babies were kidnapped from pregnant women before they were executed. Afterwards the newborns were given to people loyal to the military dictature. Raquel was on the first women to walk the Plaza de Mayo, demanding to know where her newborn grandchild was brought. After the dictatorship came to an end she started working with the U.S. geneticist

Mary-Claire King Mary-Claire King (born February 27, 1946) is an American geneticist. She was the first to show that breast cancer can be inherited due to mutations in the gene she called ''BRCA1''. She studies human genetics and is particularly interested in g ...

on matching grandparents with their kidnapped grandchildren, a work she continued until her death in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gvirtz, Raquel Argentine women activists Argentine human rights activists Women human rights activists 2013 deaths Activists from Buenos Aires 1924 births Argentine people of Russian descent 20th-century Argentine people 20th-century Argentine women