The Memory of State Terrorism in the Southern Cone

The Memory of State Terrorism in the Southern Cone

Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

Edited by

Francesca Lessaand

Vincent Druliolle

palgravemacmillan

THE MEMORY OF STATE TERRORISM IN THE SOUTHERN CONE

Copyright © Francesca Lessa and Vincent Druliolle, 2011.Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2978011 97897978-0-230-11014-4

All rights reserved.

Cover art copyright © 2011, Senza Titolo by Giuseppe Lana, photograph by Claudio Cocuzza

An earlier version of chapter 5, “Chile: Dilemmas of memory,” by Elizabeth Lira, was published as “Xile: Dilemes de la Memòria Política” in Polítiques Públiques de la Memòria. I Col·loqui Internacional Memorial Democràtic, ed. Jordi Guixé Coromines and Montserrat Iniesta (Barcelona: Eumo Editorial and Memorial Democràtic, 2009). The chapter is published with the permission of the publisher.

First published in 2011 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN®in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 978-1-349-29243-1 ISBN 978-0-230-11862-1 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230118621

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The memory of state terrorism in the Southern Cone : Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay / edited by Francesca Lessa and Vincent Druliolle.

p. cm.

1. State-sponsored terrorism—Southern Cone of South America. 2. Political persecution—Southern Cone of South America. 3. Disappeared persons—Southern Cone of South America. I. Lessa, Francesca. II. Druliolle, Vincent.

HV6322.3.S63M46 2010363.325098—dc22 2010037488

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First edition: April 2011

Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Contributors xv

Introduction Present Pasts: Memory(ies) of State Terrorism in the Southern Cone of Latin America 1Emilio Crenzel

1 Remembering and Its Places in Postdictatorship Argentina 15 Vincent Druliolle

2 The Slogan “Complete Memory”: A Reactive (Re)-signification of the Memory of the Disappeared in Argentina 43 Valentina Salvi

3 Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and Los Rubios 63 Cecilia Sosa

4 Justice and Its Remainders: Diamela Eltit’s Puño y letra 87 Michael J. Lazzara

5 Chile: Dilemmas of Memory 107 Elizabeth Lira

6 The Traces of “Postmemory” in Second-Generation Chilean and Argentinean Identities 133 Alejandra Serpente

vi ● Contents

7 Private Transmission of Traumatic Memories of the Disappeared in the Context of Transitional Politics of Oblivion in Uruguay (1973−2001): “Pedagogies of Horror” among Uruguayan Families 157 Gabriela Fried Amilivia

8 No hay que tener los ojos en la nuca: The Memory of Violence in Uruguay, 1973–2010 179 Francesca Lessa

Afterword The Politics of “Memory” in the Long Present of the Southern Cone 209Vikki Bell

Index 223

Illustrations

Photo 1.1 Ex-CCDyT El Club Atlético. Photo by Vincent Druliolle 21Photo 1.2 Baldosa, Buenos Aires. Photo by Vincent Druliolle 23Photo 1.3 Parque de la Memoria. Photo by Vincent Druliolle 27Photo 1.4 Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado.

Photo by Vincent Druliolle 28Photo 1.5 “Never Again look the other way” painted on a

zebra crossing. Photo by Vincent Druliolle 36Photo 8.1 Punta Carretas Shopping Center, Montevideo.

Photo by Francesca Lessa 194Photo 8.2 Memorial to Disappeared-Detainees, Montevideo.

Photo by Francesca Lessa 195Photo 8.3 Voto Verde, Museum of Memory, Montevideo.

Photo by Francesca Lessa 197Photo 8.4 March of Silence, Montevideo, May 20, 2010.

Photo by Francesca Lessa 199Photo 8.5 Sí Rosado, Montevideo, October 2009.

Photo by Francesca Lessa 202

Preface

The idea behind this book began to take shape on the second day of the 45th Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies, (Re) Invasions and Inventions: Latin America confronts the

21st Century, held at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, on March 26 and 27, 2009. On March 26, our panel at the conference saw two inspir-ing sessions, with six papers presented on the topic of “Memory Struggles in the Post-dictatorial Southern Cone: Remembering, Commemorating, Protesting,” and an ensuing enthusiastic discussion between the panelists and the audience. This lively and inspiring atmosphere is what prompted us to continue to critically explore the politics of memory in the Southern Cone, and invite a wider range of scholars to take part in this discussion, through a publication.

Our fellow panelists in Leeds (Vikki Bell, Valentina Salvi, Alejandra Serpente, and Cecilia Sosa) enthusiastically supported what was then an exciting—and a bit ambitious—“book project.” It was eventually submit-ted to Palgrave at the end of 2009, after we decided to invite some scholars whose work has inspired us over the years, to contribute to our publication. We are extremely grateful to them for their enthusiastic responses and for believing in our “book project” like the panelists did.

Interest in memory and publications on this subject are, of course, not a new area of academic interest. Let us just think at the wealth of literature that exists on the commemorations of the two world wars and, in particular, the Holocaust. In the past two decades, publications on memory have, how-ever, increased exponentially, taking stock of the global trend that Andreas Huyssen labeled societies’ “obsession with memory.” The study of the mem-ory of traumatic events such as conflict, human rights violations, and state repression in particular has attracted academic interest and produced a bur-geoning scholarship lately.

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Our book exists against this background and contributes to this body of scholarship; we believe it to be particularly innovative and original for a number of reasons. First, despite the significant development of the memory studies literature, a relative lack of high-quality scholarship published in English on memory struggles in the countries of the Southern Cone can be identified. This is quite surprising, given their high profile around the world and the increasing interest paid to these issues in general by academia and beyond. Second, the innovative perspectives provided by the chapters of this volume, and the original contribution of the book as a whole, derive from the profiles of the international contributors, both emerging scholars and renowned experts on memory struggles in these Latin American countries. Thus, we hope that the book will appeal and be of interest to a large public, including scholars of Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Memory Studies, Politics, Sociology, and Latin American Studies.

This edited volume explores the contested aspects, realms, meanings, goals, and the challenges associated with the struggles relating to the con-struction and preservation of the memories of state repression in the Southern Cone countries of Latin America, namely Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. To capture these experiences and practices and to reflect memory’s dynamic and multifaceted character, it is necessary to draw on a range of fields and perspectives, bringing them together. This is the reason why the contribu-tors to this collection come from a variety of academic disciplines, including Sociology, Politics, International Relations, Psychology, Drama, and Latin American Studies. The ambition of the book is thus, through their authors’ perspectives and backgrounds, to illuminate the richness and complexities of what is often referred to as “the politics of memory,” a notion that the book also questions.

Finally, we would like to spend a few words explaining the reasons behind our choice of book cover, given the significant symbolism of the selected image. Giuseppe Lana’s work Senza titolo (Untitled) produced in 2010 embodies a conceptual opposition. In the artist’s words, it reflects the search for the longed-for balance “while being alone, at the wrong place, at the wrong time.” For the artist, his creation constitutes “a trial of strength between opposing energies that reject one another . . . just like everyone does, on a daily basis, beginning with ourselves, and then also with the others.” The words of the author relating to his artwork apply well to our book, in which we expose several tensions, different understandings, and manifesta-tions of memory at the social, cultural, and political levels.

We believe this artwork to be extremely unique and challenging. It is an image that does not go unnoticed; on the contrary, it provokes the readers, making them wonder, making them think. The image is directly connected

Preface ● xi

to the themes that are closely discussed and examined in the book. The dark-ness, in the background, reminds us of the terror and fear that character-ized the years of the military dictatorships in the Southern Cone. The light breaking through reminds us of hope, of various kinds of hope, opposition to the dictatorships, the denunciation of their crimes, the hope associated with the recovery of the stolen identities of appropriated children, or when advances in terms of truth and justice are achieved, like General Pinochet’s 1998 London arrest or the overruling of the Full Stop and Due Obedience Laws in Argentina in 2005.

The opposition between the fan and the heater recalls the tensions of the past, the disagreements and differences between the ideology of the Armed Forces and their plans for society, and the opposition to their proposed ways of life; the diverse beliefs and projects for organizing society, and the con-flictual character of social interactions. These antagonisms continue in the present, as Vikki Bell reminds us, in which past tensions and conflicts are continuously played out. These encompass the different memories and the various ways of remembering the years of military rule and political violence that clash with each other on a daily basis in the social, cultural, and politi-cal landscapes in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

In sum, this image perfectly combines several of the organizing con-cepts of the book, and illustrates the “politics of memory” analyzed in this volume.

The “Politics of Memory” in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are like a never-ending memory mosaic. Each colorful piece tells us a different story, provides us with a new perspective, challenging, provocative, disturbing, interesting, that we may not like or agree with. Still, if we are to ever come close to comprehending the unfolding memory practices and struggles in these three countries, we need to look at each piece, with tolerance and “fresh eyes” every time, in a continuous learning process. This collection of essays provides some of the many pieces of the memory mosaic in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, rather than an all-encompassing and definitive assess-ment. This mosaic has no end in sight: we hope this remains so, as a crystal-lization of memory would be a deeply troubling event.

Acknowledgments

The editors would like to thank a number of people whose advice, support, encouragement, and work has been essential to the cre-ation of this book.

First, we would like to express our most sincere gratitude to our eight contributors. All of them produced outstanding chapters and enthusiasti-cally believed in our project from the very beginning. Second, Giuseppe Lana who allowed us to reproduce his artwork Senza Titolo as our book’s cover art. Third, Professor Chris J. Brown (London School of Economics) who supported our idea and provided us with insightful advice in the initial stages of the project. Fourth, Robyn Curtis, our editor, for responding to our numerous questions throughout the preparation of this book.

Vincent Druliolle wishes to express his gratitude to Francesca Lessa whose unwavering motivation, determination, and faith in this book project were decisive. Giving birth to and coordinating this book with her took a lot of time, it was at times stressful and exhausting, but working together was always a pleasure.

Francesca Lessa would like to thank Vincent Druliolle for believing in what was initially a “crazy idea” and then turned out to be a difficult but always rewarding endeavor. The preparation of this book would have been impossible without our joint efforts as a team, and I do hope this is only the beginning of a hopefully long-term collaboration.

Contributors

Vikki Bell (Ph.D., Sociology, Edinburgh University) is Professor in Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where she con-venes the taught M.A. programs. Her books include Feminist Imagination: Genealogies in Feminist Thought (Sage, 1999) and Culture and Performance: The Challenge of Ethics, Politics and Feminist Theory (Berg, 2007). In addi-tion to the interest in social and cultural theory, she has been working of late on sociocultural aspects of transitional justice in Argentina and in Northern Ireland, and has published articles on this topic in journals such as Cultural Politics, Social & Legal Studies, Journal of Visual Culture and Theory, Culture & Society.

Emilio Crenzel (Ph.D., Sociology, University of Buenos Aires) is Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET), and Professor of Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the author of La Historia Política del Nunca Más: La Memoria de las Desapariciones en la Argentina (Siglo XXI Editores, 2008), Memory of the Argentina Disappearances: The Political History of the Never Again Report (Routledge: New York, on contract) and “Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons: Contributions to Transitional Justice” International Journal of Transitional Justice 2, no. 2 (2008): 173–191, and other articles on social memories of political violence in the Southern Cone of Latin America, in journals in Brazil, Canada, Europe, Israel, Mexico, and the United States.

Vincent Druliolle (Ph.D., Politics, University of Essex) is an Independent Researcher. His doctoral research, on which his contribution to this volume is based, analyzes the idea of remembering as a set of political practices in postauthoritarian Argentina and the relationship between these commemo-rative practices and the construction of democracy. He is also interested in the debate about the memory of the Civil War, Franco’s dictatorship,

xvi ● Contributors

and the transition to democracy in Spain, about which he has published “Democracy Captured By Its Imaginary: The Transition as Memory and Discourses of Constitutionalism in Spain” Social and Legal Studies 17, no. 1 (2008): 75–92.

Gabriela Fried Amilivia (Ph.D., Sociology, UCLA) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at California State University Los Angeles. She has also been a Professor and Researcher in the M.A. Program of the Faculty of Psychology, University of the Republic of Uruguay between 2009 and 2010. Her recent publications include “Remembering Trauma in Society: Forced Disappearance and Familial Transmissions after Uruguay’s Era of State Terror (1973–2001)” in Sociology of Memory: Papers from the Spectrum, ed. Noel Packard (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009); and “Piecing Memories Together. The Female Political Prisoners’ Testimonial Project after State Terror and Policies of Oblivion in Uruguay (1997–2004)” Social Identities 12, no. 5 (2006): 543–562.

Giuseppe Lana (Academy of Fine Arts, Italy) is artistic director of the exhi-bitions gallery BOCS (Box of Contemporary Space), in Catania since 2008. Principal exhibitions and projects: “Pietralavica,” DNA Projectbox, Venice; “Sweet sheets” (moves to modica), palazzo della cultura, Modica; “Persona in meno,” Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Guarene, Palazzo Ducale, Genova; “Titolo Grosso,” CRIPTA 747, Turin; “Kataunas,” Balta gallery/Meno Parkas gallery, Kaunas (Lituania); “Sprigionie,” Galleria Franco Marconi, Cupra Marittima (AP). His works can be found in both private and public collections, and special projects such as Fondazione Volume!, Rome; Brodbeck Foundation, Catania; Horcynus Orca Foundation, Capo peloro (ME); MACC MuseoArteContemporanea, Caltagiorone (CT); Complesso Museale Del Vittorianio, Roma, “Sale Del Bramante,” Rome.

Michael J. Lazzara (Ph.D., Spanish, Princeton University) is Associate Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Luz Arce and Pinochet’s Chile: Testimony in the Aftermath of State Violence (2011); Chile in Transition: The Poetics and Politics of Memory (2006); Los Años de Silencio: Conversaciones Con Narradores Chilenos Que Escribieron Bajo Dictadura (2002); and articles on Latin American literature and culture. He is also coeditor of Telling Ruins in Latin America (2009), with Vicky Unruh.

Francesca Lessa (Ph.D., International Relations, London School of Economics) is Research Associate for the Latin America International Affairs Programme at the IDEAS Centre, London School of Economics.

Contributors ● xvii

She is the author of “The Investigative Commission on the Kidnapping and Assassination of Former National Representatives Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Gutiérrez-Ruiz” and “The Peace Commission” in the Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice (2012). Her research interests include Transitional Justice and Memory in the Southern Cone of Latin America, especially Argentina and Uruguay, and the current situation of human rights in the same region.

Elizabeth Lira is a Psychologist and the Director of the Center of Ethics at the Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago (Chile). She has been awarded for her work and research on psychosocial treatment for victims of human rights violations the Nevitt Sanford Award (International Society of Political Psychology, 1998) and the International Humanitarian Award (American Psychological Association, 2002). She is coauthor with Brian Loveman for more than ten books on the historical process of Chilean political reconcilia-tion since 1814 to the present time. Her recent research includes Reparations Policies, Justice, and Memory in Chile. She has been a member of the National Commission of Political Imprisonment and Torture (2003–2005) and member of the recent Advisory Commission for the recognition of dis-appeared, executed, and tortured victims (2010–2011).

Valentina Salvi (Ph.D., Social Sciences, State University of Campinas, Brazil) is Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET) and the Research Institute “Gino Germani” (University of Buenos Aires). She is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires and Professor at the National University “Tres de Febrero” in the Faculty of Arts. She is the author of articles in books and journals on the military memory of the repression and on memory, nation, and responsibility, published in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Germany.

Alejandra Serpente is a doctoral student at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, University of London. The pro-visional title of her thesis is “Diasporic Argentine and Chilean Identities in Britain: The Traces of Dictatorship in Second-Generation ‘Postmemory.’ ” Her research interests include the politics of memory and trauma, as well as issues of cultural identity among Latin American migrant communities, especially those of the Chilean and Argentinean diasporas in the UK.

Cecilia Sosa is an Argentine sociologist who worked for five years as a cultural journalist for the national newspaper Página 12. In 2007, she was awarded a Chevening Scholarship to undertake an M.A. at Goldsmiths, University of London, awarded with distinction. She is currently doing her Ph.D. in

xviii ● Contributors

Drama at Queen Mary, University of London, working on a thesis entitled “Performance, Kinship and Archives: Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s 1976–1983 dictatorship.” She has published “A Counter-narrative of Argentine Mourning. The Headless Woman (2008), by Lucrecia Martel” in Theory, Culture & Society 26, nos. 7–8 (2009): 250–262; she has two other pieces in press.