40th anniversary of the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo"

The Argentine human rights group called "Madres de Plaza de Mayo" (Mothers of the Disappeared) took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Sunday, April 30, to mark the 40th anniversary of their first march to demand justice for those who "disappeared" during the military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983. Demonstrators gathered in front of the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace where people paid tribute.

In 1984, Bonnie St. Claire and José Hoebee released their first duet single entitled "Cassandra" (a Dutch cover version of a song originally performed by ABBA which was the B-side of their single "The Day Before You Came" in 1982). Will Hoebee (José's husband), then a sought-after producer, supervised the recording of this duet. Eurovision Song Contest conductor Harry van Hoof arranged the track. Benny Neyman (a famous artist from Will's roster) wrote the text of this song in Dutch. His lyrics dealt with the movement of the Argentinian mothers.

On July 7th 1984, "Cassandra", released by Philips Records, entered the Dutch charts. It later peaked at #24 on the Top 40 and #19 on the Nationale Hitparade (click here for information about this track).

To honour these fabulous mothers and the memory of the victims of the Argentinian dictatorship, here's a video of Bonnie & José performing "Cassandra" on Veronica's iconic TV show "Nederland Muziekland":

Source: BBC News, El Pais, The Guardian, YouTube....