Memorial Fragments, Monumental Silences and Re-Awakenings in 21st-Century Chile

Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 379-400, 2009

22 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2015

See all articles by Katherine Hite

Katherine Hite

Vassar College

Cath Collins

Ulster University - Transitional Justice Institute; Universidad Diego Portales

Date Written: July 8, 2009

Abstract

This paper analyzes the commemoration of political violence and its victims in the aftermath of the Chilean dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). We assess the varied political processes involved in commemoration, and we identify those whose struggles to reclaim sites and spaces associated with past human rights violations represent a new political, and in some cases anti-political, repertoire. We also examine shifts in official stances and action regarding human rights and political commemoration. Drawing from distinct commemorative processes, the chapter will explore how a range of actors recognizes that memorials can serve to realize individual and collective commemorative impulses, assuage postponed demands for symbolic or more tangible justice, and/or (re)assert political identity. Commemorations can become vital spaces for societal soul-searching, not just about the past, but also about the present and future. Yet we suggest that the post-Pinochet memorials constitute fragments in Chile’s landscape. Inviting broader public engagement with the recent past through memorials has proved both elusive and problematic.

The first part of the paper introduces several questions and dilemmas illustrated by the evolving dynamics of a multi-actor commemoration field in Chile, where many types of civil society groupings interact with an almost equally varied universe of official bodies in efforts to have memorial projects recognized and realized. A central thread, and recurring theme, is the question of the “right relationship” between official and private initiatives and publics in the design, construction and interpretation of memorials. Here we explore the pervasive influence of authoritarian incumbents, the state as a reactive rather than proactive force, and the tensions around memorial design and location. We also venture to ask what constitutes a “successful” commemorative endeavor.

In Part II of the paper, we signal three kinds of commemorative activity in present-day Chile that best capture current trends in this field. The first is civil society-driven human rights commemoration, involving often prolonged and fitful struggles among tremendously varied actors at both the local and national levels. We analyze two major memorial projects, Villa Grimaldi and Paine, as well as one nascent commemoration struggle, Londres 38. We also examine two “counter-memorial” initiatives. Second, we distinguish political commemoration as conceptually and practically distinct from human rights commemoration. Political commemoration does not directly focus on the human rights legacies of the dictatorship, but rather on the political fractures that surrounded and preceded the dictatorship. Such commemorations attempt to reinterpret or re-package particularly contested moments and leaders to fit evolving political preferences and priorities. In this vein, we examine the Salvador Allende monument and the memorial to Jaime Guzmán. Here, the main protagonists are government and opposition elites, rather than civil society-based human rights groups.

Finally, we discuss a major state-sponsored human rights-related initiative, the Museum of Memory, and we attempt to show how the project constitutes not so much strong executive leadership on the human rights issue, as a necessary official response to persistent “bottom up” dynamics and experiences in the field of commemoration.

Suggested Citation

Hite, Katherine and Collins, Cath and Collins, Cath, Memorial Fragments, Monumental Silences and Re-Awakenings in 21st-Century Chile (July 8, 2009). Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 379-400, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2628446

Katherine Hite

Vassar College ( email )

124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
United States

Cath Collins (Contact Author)

Ulster University - Transitional Justice Institute ( email )

Shore Road
Newtownabbey, Belfast BT37 OQB
Northern Ireland

Universidad Diego Portales ( email )

Republica 112
Santiago, Santiago
Chile

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