oral history in the americas

Oral History in the AmericasAuthor(s): Ivan JaksicSource: The Journal of American History, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Sep., 1992), pp. 590-600Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2080049 .

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Oral History in the Americas

Ivan Jaksic

There was a period when the historical craft in Latin America was based primarily on oral sources. In the sixteenth century, Iberian chroniclers, conquerors, and priests sought to reconstruct the indigenous past to gain knowledge useful for colonization and conversion. Although their aims were not scholarly, these Europeans recorded much history based on oral testimonies from survivors of the large civilizations of Mexico, Central America, and the Andes. In particular, they collected information about social, economic, and religious traditions. The classic example is Bernardino de Sahaguin's Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva Espana, first published in 1665. A Franciscan friar, Sahaguin relied primarily on the accounts of numerous indigenous informants, which he transcribed in the original Nahuatl language and then translated into Spanish. There is also a rich literature on the conquest and colonization that, although colored by the cultural assumptions of sixteenth-century Europeans, provides important information about the major Indian civilizations. Representative examples are Bernal Diaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana (1568) and Pedro Cieza de Leon's Crdnica delPerfi (1553). Oral history, during the colonial era, was primarily an instrument of colonization, a transitional tool used by Europeans while they created their own records and traditions.1

In the nineteenth century, the descendants of the original colonizers, now prominent revolutionary leaders of new Latin American nations, used oral testimonies to build national identity and history. They sought to justify their break from the colonial past and to rationalize their position of leadership by developing histories that relied heavily on interviews with leaders of the independence movement in the first

Ivan Jaksic is associate professor of history and director of the Center for Latin America at the University of Wis- consin-Milwaukee. He is also president of the Society for Iberian and Latin American Thought. The author wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the comments on an earlier version of this article by Professors Michael A. Gordon and Joseph A. Rodriguez of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

I See [Bernardino de Sahagdn], General History of the Things of New Spain: The Florentine Codex, trans. and ed. ArthurJ. 0. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (13 vols., Santa Fe, 1970-1977). For an analysis of Sahagfin's work, see J. Jorge Klor de Alva, H. B. Nicholson, and Eloise Quifiones Keber, eds., The Work of Bernardino de Sahagfin, Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-Century Aztec Mexico (Albany, 1988). Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. J. M. Cohen (London, 1963); Pedro Cieza de Le6n, The Incas of Pedro Cieza de Le6n, trans. Harriet de Onis, ed. Victor W. Von Hagen (Norman, 1959). An important body of works by Indians chronicles the conquest. For an account dictated to a priest by an Inca nobleman in 1570, see Diego de Castro Tito Cusi Yupangui, Relacion de Ia conquista delPeru (Lima, 1973). For an analysis of the problems of transferring native experience to the colonizer's language, see Rolena Adorno, ed., From Oral to Written Expressions: Native Andean Chronicles of the Early Colonial Period (Syracuse, 1982). See also Patricia Seed, "'Failing to Marvel': Ata- hualpa's Encounter with the Word," Latin American Research Review, 26 (no. 1, 1991), 7-32.

590 The Journal of American History September 1992



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quarter of the nineteenth century or with statesmen who laid the political framework of Latin American nations in later decades. Some historians of the period claimed that their accounts were accurate because they were based not only on written documents but also on oral testimony. Historians Bartolome Mitre of Argentina, president of that country from 1862 to 1868, and Diego Barros Arana of Chile, a prominent politician and educator, for instance, relied extensively on their own par- ticipation in the major events of nineteenth-century Latin American history or on their personal access to prominent actors and policy makers. Oral history, again, helped to validate the written record and to build and justify a new social hierarchy.2

Oral history in Latin America has never lost its utilitarian character. Even today, it is used to advance social and political agendas. However, historians have in recent years developed a new appreciation for oral history as a method that illuminates and enriches the historical field, particularly by revealing the views and actions of social sectors traditionally shut out of the historical record. This appreciation is a result of the development of social history in the United States in the 1960s, which rapidly influenced research on both Latino (that is, of the peoples of Latin Amer- ican origin living in the United States) and Latin American topics. Only with the research that has developed in the past three decades can one clearly differentiate oral history as a scholarly method from oral testimonies used simply to convey the views of prominent individuals, to promote social and political views, or to rationalize the existing social order.3

A successful approach to oral history takes into account the cultural and historical differences of the regions in which it is applied, and a good oral historian seeks to work with the interviewee in developing and contextualizing testimony. Thus, a dis- tinction is made throughout this article between oral history as an instrument that extracts impressionistic testimony to illustrate a view of history, rather than to ex- plain history, and oral history as a participatory method that weaves a person's knowledge, interpretation, and experience of events with those of the historian. Latin American cases provide examples of both uses.

This article has two related goals. First, it will survey representative oral history collections on Latin America and on Latinos in the United States. The two categories

2 On nineteenth-century history and the relationship between history and nation building, see Nicolas Shumway, The Invention of Argentina (Berkeley, 1991); and Allen Woll, A Functional Past. The Uses of History in Nineteenth-Century Chile (Baton Rouge, 1982). See also German Colmenares, Las convenciones contra la cul- tura. Ensayos sobre la historiografia hispanoamericana del siglo XIX (Bogota, 1987).

3 See James W. Wilkie, "Postulates of the Oral History Center for Latin America," Journal of Library History, 2 (Jan. 1967), 45-55; Eugenia Meyer and Alicia Olivera de Bonfil, "La historia oral: Origen, metodologia, desarrollo y perspectivas," Historia Mexicana, 21 (Oct.-Dec. 1971), 372-87; James W. Wilkie, "Alternative Views in History: Historical Statistics and Oral History," in Research in Mexican History; Topics, Methodology, Sources, anda Practical Guide to Field Research, ed. Richard E. Greenleaf and Michael C. Meyer (Lincoln, 1973), 49-62; Lyle Brown, "Methods and Approaches in Oral History: Interviewing Latin American Elites," Oral History Review, 1 (1973), 77-86; and Peter Winn, "Oral History and the Factory Study: New Approaches to Labor History," Latin American Research Review, 14 (no. 2, 1979), 130-40. The development of social history and oral methodology has been particularly important for Chicano historians. For an example of extensive use of oral history, see Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California (Cambridge, Mass., 1979).




can be discussed together because they are so intertwined. It is not unusual for the same collection to house materials concerning both migrant communities in the United States and Latin American events. And some collections (located in Latin America or in the United States) that concentrate exclusively on Latin American events nonetheless have relevance for United States history because of the involve- ment of the United States in the region. This essay argues that the method of oral history can transcend traditional disciplinary and geographical boundaries in order to show the many connections between the United States and Latin America. Oral history not only underscores how closely related the two regions are but also contributes a rich source of comparative material. Second, this article will also consider the methodological problems posed by the use of oral history in politically polarized situations and provide an example from one country of the advantages and short- comings of using oral history.

Outstanding collections on the experiences and roles of Latinos in the United States are widely scattered, reflecting the wide distribution of Latino communities. The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York City houses a leading collection about migration from Puerto Rico to New York, especially from the 1920s to the 1960s. This collection also features an important set of interviews and studies on Puerto Rican women and their role in the barrios of New York City. Major projects involving the use of oral history include the recent community history project in Brooklyn, New York. Important collections of interviews with Mex- ican Americans include those of the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas-El Paso; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, Lawrence; the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; the Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California; the Pasadena Oral History Collection, Pasadena, California; the Boulder Public Library Oral History Collection, Boulder, Colorado; the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas; and the Marriott Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Many of the interviews involve community and labor history. Some collections are more specific, such as the Chicano Re- search Center at SanJose State University, SanJose, California, which is particularly strong on the Chicano student movement during the late 1960s.4

These collections are important for historians of the United States, especially for those who seek to integrate the Latino experience into the larger context of Amer- ican history. Given the lack of written records, oral history becomes an essential method for incorporating the perspectives of migrant workers as well as more estab-

4The oral history component of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies was established in 1973. For a description of the center, see Rina Benmayor, AnaJuarbe, Blanca Vazquez Eraso, and Celia Alvarez, "Stories to Live By: Con- tinuity and Change in Three Generations of Puerto Rican Women," Oral History Review, 16 (Fall 1988), 1-46, esp. 4-6. Other examples of oral history work at the center are Rosa M. Torruellas, Rina Benmayor, Anneris Goris, and AnaJuarbe, Affirming Cultural Citizenship in the Puerto Rican Community: CriticalLiteracy andthe El Barrio PopularEducation Program (New York, 1991); and Rina Benmayor, Rosa M. Torruellas, and AnaJuarbe, Responses to Poverty Among Puerto Rican Women: Identity, Community, and Cultural Citizenship (New York, 1992). See Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn's Hispanic Communities (Brooklyn, 1989). On the Chicano movement, see Carlos Muftoz, Jr., Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement (New York, 1989). See also OscarJ. Martinez, "Chicano Oral History: Status and Prospects," Aztlan, 9 (Spring, Summer, Fall 1978), 119-31.



Oral History 593

A young vendor at his stall in the Central Market of Ciudad Juirez, Mexi~co, 1990. Photograph by Sarah Buttrey.

lished Latino communities in large American cities.5 The records often reveal the social, economic, and political conditions of the sending countries, especially Mexico. Hence, the growing body of oral history materials can illuminate processes of immigration and political change in Mexico and Latin America.

Other collections highlight the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and its ramifications. The Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas-El Paso is particularly rich in materials concerning the Mexican Revolution as well as the history of northern

5 On ways to incorporate oral history records, see Paul Buhle and Robin D. G. Kelley, "The Oral History of the Left in the United States: A Survey and Interpretation,"JournalofAmerican History, 76 (Sept. 1989), 535-50; Lu Ann Jones and Nancy Grey Osterud, "Breaking New Ground: Oral History and Agricultural History," ibid., 551-64; HubertJ. Miller, "Oral History: A Tool for the Study of Mexican American History in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas," Oral History Review, 15 (Fall 1987), 80-95; and Devra Anne Weber, "Raiz Fuerte: Oral History and Mexicana Farmworkers," ibid., 17 (Fall 1989), 47-62. For an account that uses extensive oral interviews conducted in the 1920s and 1930s, see Douglas Monroy, "'Our Children Get So Different Here': Film, Fashion, Popular Culture, and the Process of Cultural Syncretism in Mexican Los Angeles, 1900-1935," Aztlan, 19 (Spring 1989-1990), 78-108.




Mexico. In Mexico itself, the Sound Archive of the Mexican Revolution located at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) in Mexico City consti- tutes one of the most important collections. In 1959 researchers at INAH began to interview major and minor actors in the revolution. The Archivo de la Palabra of the Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. Jose Luis Maria Mora in Mexico City also houses important oral history records concerning the revolution. In the United States, ProfessorJames W. Wilkie began a series of interviews with Mexican leaders in 1963. Because the Mexican Revolution influenced movements based in the countryside in the rest of Latin America, Wilkie also collected interviews with Bolivian and Costa Rican leaders. More than 250 hours of those interviews are now housed at the Ban- croft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. All these materials are ex- tremely valuable to historians of the United States because of the shared border and history. Much of the history of the border region was influenced by the Mexican Revolution and the events that followed it. Obviously, the most significant event was the movement of people fleeing political violence and settling in the United States. But the Mexican Revolution also influenced the way the United States has since ap- proached revolutions in general, and Latin American revolutions in particular.6

There are various other repositories of Latin American oral history materials in the United States, although few have developed their collections in a systematic fashion. Still, they are of considerable interest because they show the fluidity of relations between the United States and Latin America. They also offer a wealth of examples for the comparative historian. Labor historians, for instance, might gain in- sight into the relationship between immigration and labor militancy by looking at the experience of such countries as Brazil and Argentina. Industrialization, Jewish settlement, and the history of gender and race relations provide other examples. Per- haps one of the richest is at Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. Par- ticularly notable is a collection of interviews with Argentine labor leaders, politicians, lawyers, and intellectuals. This collection represents a joint effort on the part of an Argentine institution, the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, the Oral History Re- search Office at Columbia, and the Tinker Foundation in New York. It provides a wide range of social, economic, and political perspectives on Argentina on the eve of the rise of Juan Domingo Peron, especially the 1930s. Although the strength of the collection is in its Argentine materials, interviews with American diplomats, military officers, and business people active in Latin American affairs contain important information about the region. This is also true of the oral history collection at the University of California, Los Angeles, which reveals important aspects of Latin American history, including the Mexican Revolution, joint United States- Mexico public works projects, the Cuban Revolution, and Mexican art. Also sig-

6 See James W. Wilkie and Edna Monz6n de Wilkie, Mexico visto en el siglo XX: Entrevistas de historia oral (Mexico City, 1969). Albert L. Michaels and Ivan Jaksie, "Jos6 Figueres y la Revoluci6n de 1948 en Costa Rica: Historia oral y fuentes escritas," Estudios Sociales, 24 (no. 2, 1980), 135-46. There are oral history materials on Costa Rica at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. See Donald McCoy, "University of Kansas Oral History Project in Costa Rica," LASA Newsletter, 4 (March 1973), 36-37.



Oral History 595

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United Farmworkers march near San Juan, Texas, in February 1990, to publicize the grape boycott. Photograph by Sarah Buttrey.

nificant are the oral history collections at Georgetown University's Lauinger Library, the Marine Corps Historical Center (Navy Department), and the Organization of American States (OAS) Voice Archive, all in Washington, D.C.7

Significant collections outside the United States include the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Contemporary Jewry, which documents the extensive Jewish migration to Latin America during the first half of the twentieth century. The collection is particularly strong on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. In Brazil, various oral history projects concerning the political history of Brazil have been under way since the 1970s, most notably at the Funda~!o Getulio Vargas, the University of Brasilia, and the Federal University of Santa Catarina, with assistance from the Ford Foundation. In Argentina, there are two major oral history projects currently being conducted on Spanish exiles and on the University of Buenos Aires by researchers at the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES). Also in Argentina, there is research in progress concerning Argentine foreign policy from 1945 to 1983. There are very few research-oriented oral history collections in Latin

7 Elizabeth B. Mason and Louis M. Starr, The Oral History Collection of Columbia University (New York, 1973). See Constance S. Bullock, The UCLA Oral History Program: Catalog of the Collection (Los Angeles, 1982). A useful guide is Michael Grow, Scholars' Guide to Washington, D.C., for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (Washington, 1979).




A youth continent of the Unied Farmworker, S_ un eaFbur 90

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A youth contingent of the United Farmworkefs, San Juan, Texas, February 1990. Photograph by Sarah Buttrey.

America outside of Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, largely because of economic difficulties and lack of adequate library and archival facilities. Still, interest in oral history is strong.8

Attempts to record the recent history of military rule and political strife in Latin America, especially in the last twenty-five years, have generated many interviews that significantly contribute to the development of oral history. Both Latin Amer- ican and United States scholars have reacted to the brutality of authoritarian regimes by documenting the often-hidden history of repression. An early example is Elena Poniatowska's La noche de Tiatelolco: Testimonios de la historia oral (1971), translated into English as Massacre in Mexico (1975), which painstakingly reconstructs the details of the student massacre of 1968 in Mexico City.9 On the eve of the Olympics, a Mexican government concerned about its international image and eager

8 See Bibliographical Center of the Institute of ContemporaryJewry, Hebrew University ofJerusalem, OralHis- tory of Contemporary Jewry: An Annotated Catalogue (New York, 1990); and George P. Browne, "Oral History in Brazil Off to an Encouraging Start:' Oral History Review (1976), 5 3-55. For information on the projects on exiles and the university, contact Enrique Tandeter and Dora Schwarzstein, CEDES, Pueyrredon 510-Piso 7, 1032 Buenos Aires, Argentina. For a description of the project on Argentine foreign policy, see Mario Rapoport and Graciela Sanchez Cimetti, "Historia oral de la politica exterior argentina, 1945-1983: Un enfoque metodol6gico,' Inter- American Review of Bibliography, 41 (no. 2, 1991), 211-23. On some obstacles to oral history in Latin America, see Eugenia Meyer, "Oral History in Mexico and Latin America:' Oral History Review (1976), 56-61.

9 Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico, trans. Helen R. Lane (New York, 1975).



Oral History 597

to showcase its social and political model brutally suppressed a student protest and minimized the number of casualties. Poniatowska, a reporter at the time, inter- viewed many survivors to establish that there had been no provocation by the students and that the number of dead far surpassed the official count. Her primary purpose was to denounce the regime and to alert the world to the truth of Mexican conditions.

More recently, events in Central America have prompted journalists and scholars to provide oral history-based accounts of that largely neglected part of the hemisphere. In particular, they have tried to establish the facts about repression, and pos- sible United States complicity, through interviews with victims who are usually il- literate peasants or members of other dispossessed groups. The tone of many of these accounts is one of denunciation.1O Where the interviewer has let the subject speak without much prodding or heavy editing, one discovers material that weaves together the personal and political and articulates remarkably rich and complex views of politics and society from people who are usually not heard." But often, the scholars and journalists covering Central America or Latin America in general utilize oral history interviews to illustrate pain, suffering, and anger in order to promote agendas for social and political change.

Projects documenting the recent history of Chile provide an example of the importance of oral history for understanding the conditions of military rule. Chile is of particular relevance to historians interested in the global role of the United States because of the American influence on Chilean political events in the last twenty-five years. The efforts of the Nixon administration to destabilize the Socialist administration of Salvador Allende between 1970 and 1973 and the 1976 assassination of a former Chilean ambassador in Washington, D.C., reveal the intensity of United States-Chilean relations and their relevance for understanding the changing nature of United States foreign policy. Until 1973, Chile had sustained one of the most stable and durable democracies in the Western hemisphere. But on September 11 of that year, the military inaugurated one of the most repressive dictatorships in the history of the region. The government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet closed the con-

10 Joe Fish and Cristina Sganga, El Salvador: Testament of Terror (New York, 1988); Wendy Shaull, Tortillas, Beans, and M-16's: Behind the Lines in El Salvador (London, 1990); Tommie Sue Montgomery, Revolution in El Salvador: Origins andEvolution (Boulder, 1982);Jenny Pearce, PromisedLand: PeasantRebellion in Chalatenango, El Salvador (London, 1986). A more self-conscious oral history, although lacking a reflection on methodology and meant to convey the views of the United States military is Max G. Manwaring and Court E. Prisk, eds., El Salvador at War. An Oral History of Conflict from the 1979 Insurrection to the Present (Washington, 1988). On Nicaragua's recent history, see Melissa Everett, Bearing Witness, Building Bridges: Interviews with North Americans Living and Working in Nicaragua (Philadelphia, 1986); Dianne Walta Hart, Thanks to Godandthe Revolution. The Oral History of a Nicaraguan Family (Madison, 1990); and Denis Lynn Daly Heyck, ed., Life Stories of the Nicaraguan Revolution (New York, 1990).

11 Important examples are Elizabeth Burgos, Me Ilamo Rigoberta Menchfi y asi me naci6 la conciencia (Mexico City, 1985); and Thomas C. Tirado, Celsa's World: Conversations with a Mexican Peasant Woman (Tempe, 1991). In Chile, the Grupo de Investigaciones Agrarias (GIA) assembled a massive set of testimonies from peasants, many of them recorded on tape, from various regions. See Grupo de Investigaciones Agrarias, Vida y palabra campesina (5 vols., Santiago, 1986-1988). The originals are deposited in the GIA library, Ricardo Matte Perez 459, Santiago, Chile.




gress, outlawed political parties of the Left, and imposed draconian censorship in the aftermath of the coup. It also launched an economic program that brought se- vere hardship for the popular sectors but created the illusion of prosperity for many in the middle class. Although some repressive measures were relaxed, during seven- teen years in power the military imprisoned, killed, tortured, and exiled thousands of Chileans while denying that such practices occurred. Larger numbers suffered ar- bitrary firing from their jobs or lost them as an open-market economy did away with the country's modest industrial base. An alarming number of Chileans sank into extreme poverty. They lost medical and pension benefits. Their protests were rapidly repressed and dismissed as the work of Communists.12

Given the censorship and official denial, historians and social scientists began to rely on oral history interviews published in the alternative press to chronicle the major social transformations under military rule.13 Here too, interviewers concen- trated on recording testimony from the victims of repression, but interviews were also conducted with regime supporters, labor leaders, politicians, clergy, and even disaffected members of the military. Thousands of interviews appeared in such Chilean newspapers and magazines as Hoy, Que'Pasa, Ercilla, Apsi, Andlisis, ElMer- curio, and La Epoca during the period of military rule.14 Information conveyed through oral histories published during the period of military rule became an important alternative channel of information that gave Chileans an opportunity to compare official rhetoric with personal testimonies. An informed citizenry was able to defeat military rule soundly in contested elections in 1988 and 1989.

With the inauguration of a new democratic regime in March 1990, Chile has had to face two enormous, interrelated challenges: the legacies of dictatorship in the form of widespread poverty and the unresolved matter of human rights abuses, which the military government either never recognized or rationalized as the

12 For general treatments of the period of military rule, see Brian Loveman, Chile: The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism (New York, 1988); Genaro Arriagada, Pinochet: The Politics of Power (Boston, 1988); Manuel Antonio Garret6n, The Chilean Political Process (Boston, 1989); J. Samuel Valenzuela and Arturo Valenzuela, eds., Military Rule in Chile: Dictatorship and Oppositions (Baltimore, 1986); and Paul W. Drake and Ivan Jaksie, eds., The Struggle for Democracy in Chile, 1982-1990 (Lincoln, 1991). Studies significantly based on oral history sources are cited below.

13 The following studies make use of oral history. Peter Winn, Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile 's Roadto Socialism (New York, 1986). Winn's study concentrates on the role of workers during the administration of President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), but it also covers the immediate aftermath. On the entire period (1973-1990), see Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela, A Nation ofEnemies: Chile underPinochet (New York, 1991). Ascanio Cavallo, Manuel Salazar, and Oscar Sepilveda, La historia oculta del regimen militar: Chile 1973- 1988 (Santiago, 1989); James R. Whelan, Out of the Ashes. Life, Death, and Transfiguration ofDemocracy in Chile, 1833-1988 (Washington, 1989).

14 Probably the most important set of interviews is by Patricia Politzer, Fear in Chile. Lives under Pinochet (New York, 1989). For the execution without trial of dozens of Chileans in 1973, see Patricia Verdugo, Los zarpazos del puma (Santiago, 1989). For the repression on the day of the coup, see Ignacio Gonzalez Camus, El dfa que muri6 Allende (Santiago, 1988). Subsequent "disappearances" of individuals after their arrest by security forces have been documented on the basis of testimonies by family members. See Vicarla de la Solidaridad, Arzobispado de San- tiago, D6nde estdn? (Santiago, 1979); and Vicaria de la Solidaridad, Chile, la memoriaprohibida (Santiago, 1989). As examples of major published interviews, see Florencia Varas, Gustavo Leigh: El general disidente (Santiago, 1979) (interview with an air force general and junta member whom Gen. Augusto Pinochet forced to resign); Patricia Politzer, Altamirano (Buenos Aires, 1989) (interview with Socialist party leader Carlos Altamirano); and Raquel Correa and Elizabeth Subercaseaux, Ego sum Pinochet (Santiago, 1989) (interview with Pinochet).



Oral History 599

product of civil war. One of the first actions of the new government was to set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (known also as the Rettig Commission because it was headed by Rauil Rettig) to study the extent of human rights abuses and provide an account of the fate of many Chileans who disappeared from their homes, often at night, never to be seen again. From the standpoint of the oral historian, it is significant that the gruesome record of assassinations (members of the commission were asked to account only for repression resulting in death) was reconstructed from oral testimony by family members, friends, and the fellow prisoners who were the last to see the victims. The Informe de la Comisi-n Nac'ional de Verdady Reconciliacion, released in March 1991, tells how and where the kidnap- pings occurred, revealing patterns of repression by political affiliation, occupation, and geographical location. After years of silence and denial, these testimonies provide the most informative source on the actions of dictatorship. Although the commission has since disbanded, the records will be available for consultation.'5

While the case of Chile reveals how oral history not only illuminates but also contributes to the process of democratization, scholars should approach works that use oral history with caution. Some works use oral history as a method, that is, they provide both the context and the opportunity for individuals to develop their own stories fully. But others simply use oral history as a tool, in that they use interviews - sometimes parts of interviews - as vehicles of denunciation. For instance, some sources concentrate on the physical aspects of torture to make a point about the savagery of repression. But accounts of torture deprived of political context and divorced from a larger framework of analysis can distort: They trivialize the suffering of the victims by emphasizing the immediate and physical aspects of torture, rather than its long-term effects.16 The most helpful interviews are precisely those that reveal how the individual comes to terms with the experience, and what conclusions he or she derives from it.

Significant exceptions notwithstanding, the use of oral history for Latin Amer- ican research remains underdeveloped. In recent years scholars have begun to realize the importance and potential of this method. But much more remains to be done. First, scholars must hone their interviewing skills to allow their subjects to develop their own stories. They must avoid the temptation to use oral history as a last resort, useful only as a source of quotations showing impressionistic reactions to events. Second, they must identify topics and areas that stand to benefit from an oral history approach. Social and political change under military rule has already been sug-

15 Comisi6n de Verdad y Reconciliaci6n, Informe de la Comisi6n Nacional de Verdady Reconciliaci6n (3 vols., Santiago, 1991). An English translation will be published by the University of Notre Dame Press. In an interview (February 14, 1992), the executive director of the commission, Jorge Correa, told me that the full records were transferred to the government in 1991. Because of the sensitive nature of their contents Correa predicted that only some will be made available for public consultation. Many cases mentioned in the report are now in litigation in Chilean courts.

16 One example is the highly personal account of Chilean repression by Jacobo Timerman, himself a victim during the period of military rule in Argentina. See Jacobo Timerman, Chile: Death in the South, trans. Roberto Cox (New York, 1987).




gested. But other promising areas include the migration from countryside to city that continues unabated in most of Latin America; the impact of free-market economic policies on much of the population as Latin American nations struggle to become competitive in international markets; and the emergence of new social movements, some of them gender-related, that defy traditional political parties and institutional mechanisms.17

How can the Latin American example be useful to American historians, and how can they make use of available resources? First, the Latino population of the United States is already larger than the populations of most individual Latin American countries. With rare exceptions, Latinos do not write about their experiences. Oral history can provide irreplaceable insights not only into the nature of their distinctive experience but also into American culture itself. For this, one need not travel to remote collections. Oral history creates its own sources, and these can be located in almost every city and major rural production area in the United States. Second, oral history, by providing a lingua franca, might help bridge the rapidly eroding boundary distinctions between the Americas. Oral history can capture the nuances of the increasingly fluid relationship between American and Latin American history. American historians might thereby learn how policies of the United States have an impact in the lives of ordinary citizens well beyond its boundaries.

17 See, for example, Susan Eckstein, ed., Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley, 1989); and Kenneth Aman and Cristian Parker, eds., Popular Culture in Chile: Resistance and Survival, trans. Terry Cambias (Boulder, 1991). Oral history research after the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City demonstrates that the field need not be associated with politics. See Eugenia Meyer, "Documenting the Earthquake of 1985 in Mexico City," Oral History Review, 16 (Spring 1988), 1-5; Elena Poniatowska, "The Earthquake," ibid., 7-20; Eva Salgado Andrade, "Epilogue-One Year Later," ibid., 21-31.



oral history in the americas

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