The Stolen Generation
Join us for a conversation with
Haley Cohen Gilliland
Director, Yale Journalism Initiative & Author of the award-winning:
“A Flower Traveled in My Blood”
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
Tuesday, December 16th, from 3-4pm ET, on Zoom.
Journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland joins The Common Good to take us inside Argentina’s era of the “disappeareds”: a time, not long ago, when masked agents in unmarked vehicles snatched people off the streets, to vanish into prisons and thrown out of planes into the sea. Tens of thousands vanished, among them pregnant women, who were kidnapped and killed after delivering their babies who were secretly given to police or military families to raise as their own.
As a review in the Atlantic put it, “Argentina’s lessons for the current moment are multiple: When tyrants threaten, more people and institutions may cower than resist; the loss of checks on state violence can be catastrophic; and no one knows who the next victim will be.”
Haley’s reporting not only uncovers the machinery of terror against dissidents, but also the power of protest and courage: as she recounts the story of the extraordinary women who rose up against it: the grandmothers (abuelas), – who spent decades tracking down the stolen children—recoveries that, astonishingly, continue to this day fifty years later.
Join us on December 16th for a gripping conversation—and bring your questions.
The Washington Post: 10 Best Books of 2025
The New Yorker: Best Books of the Year So Far
TIME: 100 Must-Read Books of 2025
BookPage: Best 10 Books of 2025
Kirkus Reviews: Best Nonfiction Books of the Year New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Indigo
“[An] astonishing story… Powerful… Harrowing… Absorbing and lucid… You would have to harden your heart to be unmoved by the Abuelas’ quest.” — New York Times
“[A] cinematically detailed, deeply researched narrative.” —Washington Post •
“Extraordinary...A harrowing and timely reminder of what happens when democracy succumbs to despotism.” — author Adam Higginbotham •
We encourage attendees to purchase a copy of “A Flower Traveled in My Blood” available now via your local independent bookstore,
Bookshop.org, or Amazon.
About our Speaker
Haley Cohen Gilliland is the Director of the Yale Journalism Initiative and the author of A Flower Traveled in My Blood, a narrative nonfiction history of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.
Her connection to the Abuelas’ story began in 2011, when she moved to Buenos Aires and learned how Argentina’s last dictatorship disappeared thousands of people—including hundreds of pregnant women whose babies were taken and raised under false identities. The Abuelas’ extraordinary fight for truth and justice ultimately inspired her to write the book she once wished existed.
Before focusing on long-form nonfiction, Haley served as The Economist’s correspondent for Argentina and Uruguay, and later wrote for the publication’s international and U.S. desks. As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared in National Geographic, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Outside, MIT Technology Review, and Bloomberg Businessweek, where she has covered everything from cloned polo horses to rocket startups, shark-attack survivors, and the hunt for Ferdinand Marcos’s hidden fortune.
She is passionate about uncovering stories driven by human obsession, resilience, and the search for truth.