María Hilda Pérez was born on April 24, 1951, in Mendoza. Maria’s family called her Corita and her friends La Gorda. José María Laureano Donda was born in the Province of Entre Ríos on May 3rd, 1955. His friends called him El Cabo. Both of them were members of the political group named Montoneros. In 1976, Eva, the eldest daughter of the couple, was born. On March 28th, 1977 María Hilda was kidnapped in the middle of the street between Morón and Castelar, in the Great Buenos Aires. She was five months pregnant. The little Eva was with her grandmother. At the same time, José contacted his family for the last time; it was the beginning of May 1977. According to testimonies of survivors, on August of 1977, María Hilda was carried to the detention camp ESMA, Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (School of Army), where Victoria was born. Hilda put a blue ribbon on her child’s ear for identification.

Victoria spent her childhood in the suburbs of Buenos Aires in Avellaneda City, but with another name. She attended to a convent school. Due to her explosive and sometimes rebellious personality she had to spend several hours at the confessional, in front of Father Juan. Those chats about history and the book of El Che, which was given by the Father, allowed that teenager to go into unknown issues and interests until that time. Or like she defines: a new way to see reality.

Victoria decided to begin her political and social activism in 1998 when she was attending at the UBA University. She was doing a degree in law. There, she gave her first step in political matters when she joined the students´ group Venceremos, part of the Political party: Patria Libre. She continued her studies and has just one subject left to finish the degree in law. At that beginning, she was already showing part of her natural skills as a political leader with a strong personality, coherent political positions and incipient charisma. These skills, promoted her almost immediately to take responsibilities in the party despite her youth and short background.

On July 25th., 2003, Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Plaza de Mayo’s Grandmothers) an organization supporting human rights received a report about a little child who had been registered as their own child by a member of the army who was working at the ESMA during the military dictatorship in the seventies. This case was investigated by H.I.J.O.S.; another human rights´ organization, and Abuelas. Several months later, Victoria was contacted by both organizations who told her that she might be the daughter of missing people. After doing the genetic analysis, Victoria confirmed that her true parents were José Donda and Hilda Pérez who were murdered at the ESMA. In this way, she became the granddaughter number 78th. Victoria’s parents are still missing.

One year later, at the beginning of 2004, Victoria was called by Alicia Kirchner, who was the Secretary of Social Development Ministry, to work with her. She was appointed at the program called Promotores Territoriales para el Cambio Social.(Territorial Promoters´ for Social changes). There, she took over the program of promotion of human rights called Claudia Falcone that was named after a student who was a political activist, kidnapped by military forces during a riot called La noche de los lápices, in 1976. This project was specially designed for young people and teenagers, and took place in private and public schools all over the country. This situation gave Victoria the possibility to know her country and at the same time projected her figure as a young and booming leader

In 2005 Victoria was candidate to Council Woman in Avellaneda for the Frente para la Victoria (Front for Victory). Even tough she was not elected, as a substitute member she had the opportunity to attend to several sessions. It was Victoria’s first contact with the legislative activity. During this experience, Victoria presented various projects related to her most important concerns: human rights, youth and women´s issues.

In the middle of 2007, Telefe channel (one of the most important television channels in Argentina) started Television por la Identidad (Television for the identity), a fiction series about the last military government. With the fundamental support of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, the series told real stories and the fight of these women for recovering the identity of their missing grandchildren during the dictatorship. In the last episode, which becomes a documentary, Victoria appeared telling her own story.

Also in 2007, it was premiered the theatre play “Vic y Vic” (Vic and Vic) which tells Victoria’s story and Victoria Grigera’s story, both missing people children. The play, written by Erika Holvarsen and based on real testimonies of both Victorias´, was part of Teatro por la Identidad (Theatre for the Identity) a season organized by Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and a group of artists which took place at Paseo La Plaza’s Theatre in Buenos Aires..

In October 2007, Vicky participated in the national elections, occupied the 18th place in the national deputies list of El Frente para la Victoria de la provincia de Buenos Aires (Front of Victory of Buenos Aires’s Province) Once elected, Victoria became the youngest woman elected Deputy in history, who has ever integrated the Chamber of Deputies. Since December of that same year Victoria works at her office, close to her friend and also Deputy of Libres del Sur, Cecilia Merchán.

In March 2008, Vicky was part of journalistic productions about the Women’s day in two of the most important magazines of Argentina, Viva and Para Ti. These magazines summoned Victoria because they considered her one of the most promising young women in Argentina, and because she also represents a new model of political leadership.

In the same month of 2008, the filmmaker Adrián Jaime premiered the documentary Victoria at the ex ESMA, which is currently called Espacio para la Memoria (Memory’s Place). The film – that was later watched at the Government’s House, The Congress and in theatres all over the country – shows Vicky in search for recover her lost identity and at the same time it tries to rebuild activism story of her parents.