We cast a wide net when scheduling our trips, looking far and wide for people who can help us get an authentic feel for the places we're visiting and the experiences of the people who live there. We found Charles Newbery, a free-lance journalist and American ex-pat, via his website. We didn't enter the meeting with a clear sense of where the conversation would go - and neither did he - but it ended up being a very useful overview of some critical issues in Buenos Aires today, which helped to inform our later interviews.

We asked Charles if he got the sense that human rights is a subject of popular concern and public discourse in Argentina. He said that, while it's "starting to get treated... we don't sit and down and talk about it. There are more pressing issues." Among them, the economy has been a major focus in Argentina following the collapse in 2001. While justice and reconciliation are important for the country, unemployment and hunger make those concerns seem more removed and less urgent.

Charles did not live in Argentina during the military dictatorship, but he has seen the lasting appeal it had for some in the country. The authoritarian government sold the promise of safety hand-in-hand with stories of a dangerous world, with threatening enemies pressing on all sides. Thus, while the government made matters manifestly unsafe for many Argentines, others believed that it was a small price to pay to prevent blood from flowing in the streets. Charles described a generational difference he has noticed in Buenos Aires - Argentines who were older during the dictatorship see it as a time of immediate danger, while those born or young during the dictatorship remember it as a period of safety, a period following great danger. As crime spiked during Argentina's economic turmoil, Charles heard people claiming, "this never would have happened during the dictatorship."