The photo which symbolised Argentina’s resistance
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Adriana Lestido, an Argentinian newspaper photographer, captured a mother and her young daughter raising their arms in protest in 1982.
With clenched fists and anguished faces, they were wearing white handkerchiefs tied around their heads representing the struggle for justice for the disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship.
The photo became a symbol of the resistance and is still used today. It embodies the spirit of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who would meet once a week demanding the return of their loved ones.
Adriana Lestido speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about capturing that iconic black and white picture.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: Adriana Lestido's Madre y Hija from 1982. Credit: Adriana Lestido)
Transcript
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| 1:07.9 | turn your push notifications on so you never miss a thing. It's 1982 and we're in |
| 1:14.2 | Argentina, just outside Buenos Aires, women with white handkerchiefs tied around their heads |
| 1:20.6 | are demanding the return of their loved ones kidnapped by the dictatorship. |
| 1:30.0 | Edriana Lesestido, a young photographer who's been working for left-wing newspaper LaVos |
| 1:35.2 | for only a week, is capturing the mood of the protesters. |
... |
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