Abstract, Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015
Gabriela Fried Amilivia                                                                  


Three decades after state terror in Uruguay, counter memory making has endured in successive waves despite the official politics of oblivion, a transitional politics based on the denial of state abuses, absence of redress for victims, and impunity for perpetrators of the crimes of state terrorism. The Uruguayan case illustrates the impossibility of foreclosing memory through political engineering and the unsustainability of blanket impunity. It also highlights the long-term effects of ongoing social mobilization for memory and personal memorialization after social trauma and offers a sociocultural and intersubjective approach to the understanding of the generation of social memory after massive political violence.

Abstract, The Demobilization of Civil Society Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Demobilization of Civil Society
Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy
Camila Jara Ibarra                                                                   


The return of democracy in Chile was characterized by the fragmentation, weakening, and crisis of social movements, which were barely present in decision making and defining the national political agenda in the postdictatorship period. Of the multiple factors that contributed to this demobilization, an important one was the influence of the collective trauma inherited from previous decades. In time, however, posttraumatic memory contributed to the generation of new identities and inputs for the collective action of the 2011 protest cycle.

Abstract, Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument
Francisca Márquez and Valentina Rozas-Krause                                                                      


Conceptual and ethnographic examination of the ideology that has given form to one of Chile’s most representative national historical monuments, the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile, indicates that monuments are a complex social construction of historically situated ideologies and practices and that, simply by being artifacts, they are always at risk of never achieving unanimity as to their truth. The controversial nature of the monument’s meaning presents us with a problem with regard to its verisimilitude and its incorporation into a shared history. It may be suggested that the historical meaning of a monument is manifested in its commemoration and in corporal uses and practices.

Abstract, Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival
Renzo Aroni Sulca


On August 14, 1985, during the armed conflict between the Communist Party of Peru, known as Shining Path, and the Peruvian state, an army patrol entered the town of Accomarca, in the Andean region of Ayacucho, and assassinated 69 peasants, presumed sympathizers of the insurgents. The majority of the survivors were displaced to the city of Lima, where they created an organization of victims and joined the Asociación de Hijos del Distrito Accomarca. Since 2011, the survivors and relatives of the victims have been remembering the massacre and transmitting their memories to their children through a Carnival performance of music and dance. Carnival is a constructive space for the production of other forms of memory and for the pursuit of justice and reparations through participatory choreography and musical performance.

Abstract, Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru
María Eugenia Ulfe and Vera Lucía Ríos


Memory museums exist as markers in the public domain; meanings and practices are created around them and assigned uses and silences. The Museum of the National Directorate against Terrorism in Peru displays artworks and archives seized from members of the Shining Path Communist Party of Peru and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and can be visited only with a special permit. The memories it contains are considered “toxic” and are exhibited in a private instead of a public space. This space cannot be understood as a “museum of conscience” or a “site of memory.” Victims are not dignified there, and no symbolic reparations are made. It houses memories in the form of artwork, books, and memorabilia of those who because of their participation in the armed groups during the conflict have been denied the status of victims as defined in the country’s reparations program.

Abstract, Historical Memory at El Salvador’s Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Historical Memory at El Salvador’s Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen
Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra


The civil war in El Salvador (1980–1992) resulted in the death of approximately 75,000 people, the vast majority killed by state and paramilitary forces. In the postwar era, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen in San Salvador promotes historical memory in order to denounce state violence and advance social justice. It departs from the historic role of museums in upholding ruling-class hegemony and offers a progressive model for disseminating and critically engaging with historical memory. This museum makes history relevant to younger generations through the use of oral history, popular pedagogy, and innovative engagement strategies. However, its impact is limited by neoliberal atomization and relatively low levels of grassroots mobilization—common obstacles faced by popular education initiatives around the world.

Introduction, The Resilience of Memory, Truth, and Justice Processes: Culture, Politics, and Social Mobilizations

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Resilience of Memory, Truth, and Justice Processes: Culture, Politics, and Social Mobilizations
edited by Roberta Villalón                                                                 


A second wave of memory, truth, and justice mobilizations has been spreading in Latin America since the turn of the century (Villalón, 2015). The push to address unresolved human rights violations perpetrated in the 1970s and 1980s has resulted in the (re)opening of trials of perpetrators and a more complex understanding of past and present violence and inequalities. The resilient collective efforts that have fed these processes have also gained depth. Richer collective memories and the achievement of (at least partially) successful outcomes have provided movements a clear sense that not all their efforts have been in vain. Justice, reconciliation, and social equality may not be at all possible, but they are utopic ideals worth pursuing (Villalón, 2016).
This third issue on the politics of collective memory expands on the contents of the first two (March 2015 and September 2016). Theoretically, it contributes to the body of literature in the field by uncovering the politics of framing memory and is developed in terms of a critical epistemology from the bottom up. The research is intended to challenge systems and practices of inequality and contribute to community efforts to generate social change for justice. The contributors dismantle inequalities of knowledge and power by critically pointing to controversies, inconsistencies, and complexities of memory, truth, and justice processes. Their studies allow for a more nuanced comprehension of past violence, breaking up simplistic interpretations that pair victims and victimizers, left and right, pre- and postconflict, truth and injustice to explore the grey areas in between and reveal the misleading effects of dichotomous rationalizations.

Abstract, Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015
Gabriela Fried Amilivia                                                                  


Three decades after state terror in Uruguay, counter memory making has endured in successive waves despite the official politics of oblivion, a transitional politics based on the denial of state abuses, absence of redress for victims, and impunity for perpetrators of the crimes of state terrorism. The Uruguayan case illustrates the impossibility of foreclosing memory through political engineering and the unsustainability of blanket impunity. It also highlights the long-term effects of ongoing social mobilization for memory and personal memorialization after social trauma and offers a sociocultural and intersubjective approach to the understanding of the generation of social memory after massive political violence.

Abstract, The Demobilization of Civil Society Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Demobilization of Civil Society
Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy
Camila Jara Ibarra                                                                   


The return of democracy in Chile was characterized by the fragmentation, weakening, and crisis of social movements, which were barely present in decision making and defining the national political agenda in the postdictatorship period. Of the multiple factors that contributed to this demobilization, an important one was the influence of the collective trauma inherited from previous decades. In time, however, posttraumatic memory contributed to the generation of new identities and inputs for the collective action of the 2011 protest cycle.

Abstract, Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument
Francisca Márquez and Valentina Rozas-Krause                                                                      


Conceptual and ethnographic examination of the ideology that has given form to one of Chile’s most representative national historical monuments, the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile, indicates that monuments are a complex social construction of historically situated ideologies and practices and that, simply by being artifacts, they are always at risk of never achieving unanimity as to their truth. The controversial nature of the monument’s meaning presents us with a problem with regard to its verisimilitude and its incorporation into a shared history. It may be suggested that the historical meaning of a monument is manifested in its commemoration and in corporal uses and practices.

Abstract, Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument
Francisca Márquez and Valentina Rozas-Krause                                                                      


Conceptual and ethnographic examination of the ideology that has given form to one of Chile’s most representative national historical monuments, the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile, indicates that monuments are a complex social construction of historically situated ideologies and practices and that, simply by being artifacts, they are always at risk of never achieving unanimity as to their truth. The controversial nature of the monument’s meaning presents us with a problem with regard to its verisimilitude and its incorporation into a shared history. It may be suggested that the historical meaning of a monument is manifested in its commemoration and in corporal uses and practices.

Abstract, Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival
Renzo Aroni Sulca


On August 14, 1985, during the armed conflict between the Communist Party of Peru, known as Shining Path, and the Peruvian state, an army patrol entered the town of Accomarca, in the Andean region of Ayacucho, and assassinated 69 peasants, presumed sympathizers of the insurgents. The majority of the survivors were displaced to the city of Lima, where they created an organization of victims and joined the Asociación de Hijos del Distrito Accomarca. Since 2011, the survivors and relatives of the victims have been remembering the massacre and transmitting their memories to their children through a Carnival performance of music and dance. Carnival is a constructive space for the production of other forms of memory and for the pursuit of justice and reparations through participatory choreography and musical performance.

Abstract, Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru
María Eugenia Ulfe and Vera Lucía Ríos


Memory museums exist as markers in the public domain; meanings and practices are created around them and assigned uses and silences. The Museum of the National Directorate against Terrorism in Peru displays artworks and archives seized from members of the Shining Path Communist Party of Peru and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and can be visited only with a special permit. The memories it contains are considered “toxic” and are exhibited in a private instead of a public space. This space cannot be understood as a “museum of conscience” or a “site of memory.” Victims are not dignified there, and no symbolic reparations are made. It houses memories in the form of artwork, books, and memorabilia of those who because of their participation in the armed groups during the conflict have been denied the status of victims as defined in the country’s reparations program.

Abstract, Historical Memory at El Salvador’s Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Historical Memory at El Salvador’s Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen
Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra


The civil war in El Salvador (1980–1992) resulted in the death of approximately 75,000 people, the vast majority killed by state and paramilitary forces. In the postwar era, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen in San Salvador promotes historical memory in order to denounce state violence and advance social justice. It departs from the historic role of museums in upholding ruling-class hegemony and offers a progressive model for disseminating and critically engaging with historical memory. This museum makes history relevant to younger generations through the use of oral history, popular pedagogy, and innovative engagement strategies. However, its impact is limited by neoliberal atomization and relatively low levels of grassroots mobilization—common obstacles faced by popular education initiatives around the world.

November 2016 Issue!

The Resurgence of Collective Memory, Truth, and Justice Mobilizations Part 3:  Culture, Politics, and Social Mobilizations  Edited by: Roberta Villalón

Issue 211 | Volume 43 | Number 6 | November 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS Since the turn of the century, various Latin American countries have witnessed a second wave of memory, truth, and justice mobilizations to address unresolved human rights abuses of past military regimes and civil conflicts. This issue-the second of a three-part series on the politics of collective memory-illustrate how artistic and cultural expressions have been created and used to tackle these dilemmas and informed memorialization, justice seeking, and reconciliation in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay. These studies point to how the limitations of democratization, peace, and reconciliation processes have shaken communities into collective mobilization including the use of artistic and cultural means to keep memory alive and push for justice.

Abstract, Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Road to Justice, 1985–2015
Gabriela Fried Amilivia                                                                  


Three decades after state terror in Uruguay, counter memory making has endured in successive waves despite the official politics of oblivion, a transitional politics based on the denial of state abuses, absence of redress for victims, and impunity for perpetrators of the crimes of state terrorism. The Uruguayan case illustrates the impossibility of foreclosing memory through political engineering and the unsustainability of blanket impunity. It also highlights the long-term effects of ongoing social mobilization for memory and personal memorialization after social trauma and offers a sociocultural and intersubjective approach to the understanding of the generation of social memory after massive political violence.

Abstract, The Demobilization of Civil Society Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Demobilization of Civil Society
Posttraumatic Memory in the Reconstruction of Chilean Democracy
Camila Jara Ibarra                                                                   


The return of democracy in Chile was characterized by the fragmentation, weakening, and crisis of social movements, which were barely present in decision making and defining the national political agenda in the postdictatorship period. Of the multiple factors that contributed to this demobilization, an important one was the influence of the collective trauma inherited from previous decades. In time, however, posttraumatic memory contributed to the generation of new identities and inputs for the collective action of the 2011 protest cycle.

Abstract, Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Occupying and Reclaiming a National Historical Monument
Francisca Márquez and Valentina Rozas-Krause                                                                      


Conceptual and ethnographic examination of the ideology that has given form to one of Chile’s most representative national historical monuments, the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile, indicates that monuments are a complex social construction of historically situated ideologies and practices and that, simply by being artifacts, they are always at risk of never achieving unanimity as to their truth. The controversial nature of the monument’s meaning presents us with a problem with regard to its verisimilitude and its incorporation into a shared history. It may be suggested that the historical meaning of a monument is manifested in its commemoration and in corporal uses and practices.

Abstract, Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Choreography of a Massacre Memory and Performance in the Ayacucho Carnival
Renzo Aroni Sulca


On August 14, 1985, during the armed conflict between the Communist Party of Peru, known as Shining Path, and the Peruvian state, an army patrol entered the town of Accomarca, in the Andean region of Ayacucho, and assassinated 69 peasants, presumed sympathizers of the insurgents. The majority of the survivors were displaced to the city of Lima, where they created an organization of victims and joined the Asociación de Hijos del Distrito Accomarca. Since 2011, the survivors and relatives of the victims have been remembering the massacre and transmitting their memories to their children through a Carnival performance of music and dance. Carnival is a constructive space for the production of other forms of memory and for the pursuit of justice and reparations through participatory choreography and musical performance.

Abstract, Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Toxic Memories? The DINCOTE Museum in Lima, Peru
María Eugenia Ulfe and Vera Lucía Ríos


Memory museums exist as markers in the public domain; meanings and practices are created around them and assigned uses and silences. The Museum of the National Directorate against Terrorism in Peru displays artworks and archives seized from members of the Shining Path Communist Party of Peru and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and can be visited only with a special permit. The memories it contains are considered “toxic” and are exhibited in a private instead of a public space. This space cannot be understood as a “museum of conscience” or a “site of memory.” Victims are not dignified there, and no symbolic reparations are made. It houses memories in the form of artwork, books, and memorabilia of those who because of their participation in the armed groups during the conflict have been denied the status of victims as defined in the country’s reparations program.