Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

Haley Cohen Gilliland

Book cover for Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children
Book cover for Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

Haley Cohen Gilliland

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Description

For readers of Say Nothing and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the epic true story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo--grandmothers who fought to find their stolen grandchildren during Argentina's brutal dictatorship.

In the early hours of March 24th, 1976, the streets of Buenos Aires rumbled with tanks as soldiers seized the presidential palace and toppled Argentina's leader. The country was 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 Argentina's people, who were tired of constant bombings and gunfights, the junta swiftly launched 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 held power until 1983 and decimated a generation.

One of the military's most diabolical acts was disappearing hundreds of pregnant women. Patricia Roisinblit was among them, a mother and leftist revolutionary labeled "subversive" and abducted while eight months pregnant with her second child. She gave birth in captivity, making one last call to her mother, Rosa, before she was never heard from again. Her newborn son was one of hundreds of babies secretly given to other families, many of them headed by police or military officers. For Rosa and other mothers of pregnant daughters and daughters-in-law, their grief was twofold--the disappearances of their children, and the theft of their grandchildren. A group of fierce grandmothers formed the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them.

A Flower Traveled in My Blood is Rosa and the Abuelas' extraordinary story, told by a journalist with unique access. With authority and compassion, Haley Cohen Gilliland brings this tale to life, tracing the lives of young mother Patricia, grandmother Rosa, and stolen newborn, Guillermo. At a time when speaking out meant death, the Abuelas confronted military officers and launched protests to reach international diplomats and journalists. They became detectives, adopting disguises to see suspected grandchildren, and even working alongside an American scientist to pioneer groundbreaking genetics tests.

A compelling mystery and deeply researched account of a pivotal era in world history, A Flower Traveled in My Blood takes readers on a journey of love, resilience, and redemption, revealing new truths about memory, identity, and family.

About the Author

Haley Cohen Gilliland is a journalist and the director of the Yale Journalism Initiative. She previously worked at The Economist for seven years, four of which were spent in Buenos Aires as the paper's Argentina correspondent. Following her time at The Economist, she has focused on narrative nonfiction--bringing history and current events to life through fact-based storytelling. She has published long-form feature articles in The New York Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Vanity Fair, among other publications. She lives in New York with her husband, dogs, and two children. A Flower Traveled in My Blood is her first book.

Critical Reviews

"[Gilliland] conveys the complicated, heart-wrenching fullness of her characters' individual stories and shades their backdrop with compulsively readable history of geopolitical tension and the emerging DNA science that fueled the Abuelas' fight. Gilliland's work, exhaustively and compassionately researched, offers a crucial counterbalance to the dark legacy of Argentina's desaparecidos, injecting the light of a model resistance movement that lay the groundwork for future international human rights investigations. Her humility and respect for the fraught journeys her subjects made toward each other and for the vital questions their journeys raised--about power, identity, family, and collective memory and healing--ensure the text will resonate for generations the world over. A piercing, emotional tribute to the value of persistent resistance." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Immaculately researched and endlessly readable, this unforgettable debut is a testament to ruthless and unchecked far-right military control and the power of collective strength, courage, and protest to overcome it." --Ms. Magazine

"Among the thousands of people 'disappeared' by Argentina's military dictatorship in the late 1970s and early '80s were hundreds of pregnant women who were killed as soon as they gave birth, their babies distributed to military officials. In this gutting history, Gilliland, a former Argentina correspondent for The Economist, retraces the lives of these women and their offspring through the stories of the determined Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo whose demand for information, and for their grandchildren, was unflagging." --The New York Times, "20 Books Coming in July"

"[An] astonishing story . . . Powerful . . . Harrowing . . . Absorbing and lucid . . . You would have to harden your heart to be unmoved by the Abuelas' quest." --Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

"In this beautifully crafted narrative history, Haley Cohen Gilliland brings to light the stories of Argentinian grandmothers who used every method available, including nascent DNA testing, to locate the children and grandchildren 'disappeared' or even murdered during the dictatorship of the country's military junta. The range of emotions is breathtaking; we learn of the horrors of disappearing, the grunt work of activism, the joys of reunion, and the pain and confusion felt by the disappeared as they try to reconcile their old and new identities. A Flower Traveled in My Blood is the riveting story of a dark history that we must not forget." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

"Haley Cohen Gilliland's monumental account of the stolen children of Argentina is a heartbreaking and humane story of devotion and moral courage, personal and cultural trauma, unfathomable political corruption and accountability, and the complexities of personal identity in the genetic age. The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo now have a history fitting of their astonishing rigor and inspiring grace." --Robert Kolker, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

"History is filled with tragedy and heartbreak, redemption and hope, but nothing compares to the story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. These women lost their children to a brutal dictatorship, and in the same cruel act, their grandchildren were taken. Their relentless search for them led the Abuelas to defy murderous squads, a complicit society, and political and judicial barriers. Yet, they kept going, creating profound changes in international law and science along the way, while providing new answers to essential moral questions about memory and identity. Haley Cohen Gilliland found the perfect thread to tell this complex, extraordinary story, and she's done so masterfully and with great heart. And every bit of it is true." --Graciela Mochkofsky, author of The Prophet of the Andes

"A Flower Traveled in My Blood is an unflinching playbook of what happens when a government's tyrannical impulses are fed as well as a heartbreaking, immersive account of what it means to stand up against injustice and demand that those who allow it move out of the way." --Booklist (starred review)

"Enthralling . . . Written with the nail-biting verve of a thriller, this spotlights relentless perseverance in the face of unthinkable brutality." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"One devastating outcome of the 1976 military coup in Argentina was the new junta's systematic kidnapping of hundreds of pregnant women, their children stolen and given to political allies. A powerful force of resistance came from the grandmothers whose story is thrillingly recounted here." --Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe, "Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List"

"Gilliland's sweeping, rigorous narrative history tells the story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, the fearless Argentine grandmothers . . . who have much to teach us now." --The Millions

"A Flower Traveled in My Blood is a poignant testament to the power of love as a form of resistance. This expertly reported tale from the former Argentina correspondent for The Economist, Haley Cohen Gilliland, honors the families who were torn apart by dictatorship and sheds light on the lengths to which people will go for the sake of their loved ones." --Paste magazine, "The Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books and Memoirs of 2025"

"Journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland immortalizes the heroic resistance of the women who called themselves the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. . . . A Flower Traveled in My Blood meticulously chronicles a chapter of humankind at its worst, giving these times their gruesome due, lest they be forgotten and repeated." --BookPage (starred review)

"Haley Cohen Gilliland has written an extraordinary book. A compelling family saga and a forensic detective story set against a sweeping narrative of a hundred years of Argentine history, A Flower Traveled in My Blood is also a harrowing and timely reminder of what happens when democracy succumbs to despotism." --Adam Higginbotham, New York Times bestselling author of Challenger and Midnight in Chernobyl

"A Flower Traveled in My Blood is a triumphant saga of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the face of pure malevolence. Haley Cohen Gilliland's inspiring, engrossing tale reminds us that successful resistance to authoritarian oppression often comes from society's seemingly least powerful--in this case, from a network of heartsick grandmothers armed with the superpowers of patience, persistence, and bottomless reservoirs of love." --Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea

Publishing Information

Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Pub date: 2025-07-15
Length: 512 pages

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