Toree Hempstead’s “Cultures of Spain” class sent her on unexpected journey.
She recalls her Spanish professor, Cathy Nelson, teaching about transitional justice and how countries confront human rights abuses when they transition to democracy. While studying Argentine history, she learned about the Dirty War.
Hempstead, a Columbus, Neb. native, consumed the facts of one of Latin America’s darkest periods from 1976 to 1983 when a brutal military ruled Argentina, leading to the illegal killing anddisappearance of some 30,000 people. Human rights abuses were rampant.