Alicia Partnoy
Alicia is the narrator of her own memoir. She focuses primarily first upon the confusion of her abduction by Videla's men and then by her own struggle to maintain hope in such a demoralizing environment in the secret camp and then again in prison. Although Alicia had at some point engaged in political activism, she had never participated in radical activities nor was she engaged in anything political when she was taken. Her arrest without trial or public record was such a frightening affair because her captors had total authority but no oversight for their behavior, which was despicable. Alicia relied upon an inner strength to focus upon the beauty of her experience whenever an opportunity presented itself.
Jorge Rafael Videla
After orchestrating a series of assassinations in the Peron family, Videla comes to power in Argentina in the late 1970s. He had belonged to a military junta, but Videla becomes the involuntary dictator of the nation. He's a ghoulish man with a penchant for violence who approves these secret "schools" or detention centers for political opposition.
The Two Babies
Much like Alicia's own baby, the babies of the two women who give birth in the detention facility are snatched away immediately. Unlike Alicia's child, these two are never seen again. After their mothers die onsite, the families continue to seek out the children for years with no success. They become the youngest victims in a regime which devalued life on all fronts.
