The Post-dictatorship Generation in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay
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The Post-dictatorship Generation in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay Collective Memory and Cultural Production Ana Ros
THE POST-DICTATORSHIP GENERATION IN ARGENTINA, CHILE, AND URUGUAY Copyright Ana Ros, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-1-349-29880-8 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE 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 throught the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-29880-8 ISBN 978-1-137-03978-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137039781 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ros, Ana, 1976 The post-dictatorship generation in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay : collective memory and cultural production / Ana Ros. pages cm Summary: Southern Cone post-dictatorship generations reshape the collective memory of the dictatorial past through political activism and forms of artistic expression (cinema, literature, comics and photography). The author situates their work at the intersection of the individual and the collective: it is enabled by changes in the political context and can have a profound impact on the collective level. At the same time, these projects help artists and activists work through traumatic events individually. The first part of the book focuses on Argentina, where this generation s public interventions have broadened social involvement in remembering the past and encouraged learning from it for the sake of the present. In the second part, the author compares the exemplary achievements in Argentina with Chile and Uruguay, where political conditions are less conducive to genuine debate. Provided by publisher. 1. Collective memory Argentina. 2. Argentina History Dirty War, 1976 1983. 3. Collective memory Chile. 4. Chile History 1973 1988. 5. Collective memory Uruguay. 6. Uruguay History 1973 1985. I. Title. F2849.2.R663 2012 982.06 4 dc23 2011049335 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: June 2012 10987654321
Für Jakob, in Liebe.
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Contents List of Images Acknowledgments ix xi Introduction: Why Write about the Post-dictatorship Generation? 1 Collective Memory and Intergenerational Transmission 6 Part I Pushing the Envelope: Memory Formation in Argentina 1 Collective Memory from the Dictatorship to the Present 13 2 Living the Absence: The Children of the Desaparecidos 25 They Live On in Our Struggle 28 They Live On in Our Everyday Struggles 30 3 Addressing Silences, Taboos, and Margins 37 Los rubios: Icebreaker and Trigger 38 The Quest for Papá Iván behind the Dead Hero 45 The Rabbit House: Remembering that particular Argentine insanity 51 History Doesn t Tell Itself : Nicolás Prividera s M 56 4 Building Bridges between Generations 63 Children and Revolution: El tiempo y la sangre and Encontrando a Víctor 64 El mar y la serpiente: We Cannot Change the Past, But... 72 Demasiados héroes: I d rather he was dead 77
viii Contents 5 The Past in the Present, the Present in the Future 85 Diario argentino: WhereWereYouWhenHistoryWas Happening? 86 Cordero de Dios: On Life Priorities and the Priority of Life 92...Victory Always: Restituted Children Restore Politics 96 Part II Chile and Uruguay: Memory Struggles in Negotiated Transitions 6 Chile: Overcoming the Stunned State of the People 107 Collective Memory from the Dictatorship to the Present 108 Pinochet s Children? 118 The End? Volver a vernos, Actores secundarios, and Apgar 11 121 El astuto mono Pinochet: The Dictatorship through Children s Eyes 135 Jogging Memory: Reinalda del Carmen, mi mamá y yo, and La quemadura 144 7 Uruguay: Memory Struggles against the Clock 157 Collective Memory from the Dictatorship to the Present 158 The Post-dictatorship Generation: Unlocking the Past 177 The Predicament of Nostalgia: Acero y piel, Destino Final, andcrónica de un sueño 181 The Past as a Challenge: Two Short Stories and a Comic 190 Conclusion: The Never-Ending Path to the Never Again 201 Not Even Past: Unexplored Aspects and a Critical Relation to the Present 205 Notes 209 Bibliography 227 Index 245
Images 3.1 The actress taking notes while watching an interview with a former activist in Los rubios (Carri 2003) 44 3.2 The actress looking at pictures and thinking while we hear the audio of an interview with a former comrade of her parents in Los rubios (Carri 2003) 44 3.3 Diagram of the political structure of INTA made by the director in M (Prividera 2007) 59 4.1 Conversation between mother and daughter in Encontrando a Víctor (Bruschtein 2004) 69 4.2 The director posing next to her father s picture in Encontrando a Víctor (Bruschtein 2004) 71 5.1 Teresa, Guillermina, and Arturo meeting in the car in Cordero de Dios (Cedrón 2008) 94 6.1 Members of the student movement in the 1985 toma of the institute No. 12, Arturo Alessandri Palma, in Actores Secundarios (Bustos 2004) 126 6.2 María riding her bicycle on the streets of Santiago de Chile in Apgar 11 (Leighton 2003) 133 6.3 Pinochet (standing, on the right) addressing the Chilean people as their new president in El astuto mono Pinochet contra la moneda de los cerdos (Perut and Osnovikoff, 2004) 139
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Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful for the support I have received throughout this project. Many of the ideas emerged in conversations with Jakob Feinig, who also helped find the best way of expressing them and supported me constantly throughout this process. Since I started exploring transmission and the post-dictatorship generation, my sister Ofelia Ros has been a key interlocutor. She was also a great help in defining the structure of this book. I much appreciate Mariana Grajales-Block s editorial comments on the manuscript, as well as her translation of texts published in Spanish. I benefited greatly from Federico Pous s feedback on the part about Argentina and Daniel Noemi Voionmaa s on the chapter about Chile. The final responsibility is, of course, mine. I want to thank my mother, Liliana, for sharing her memories with me, which has not always been easy, but helped me better understand the questions and concerns that drive my research in the context of my own story. I especially thank the writers and filmmakers who kindly answered my questions about their work and sent me their books and films: Cristián Leighton, Lupe Pérez García, Natalia Bruschtein, Alejandra Almirón, Andrés Habegger, Matías Bergara, and Virgina Croatto. Equally important were the stimulating discussions with colleagues from different departments across the humanities and social sciences at SUNY-Binghamton during my tenure of the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) fellowship. Without the teaching releases enabled by IASH and the Dean s Research Semester Award at SUNY-Binghamton, I would not have been able to complete this project in a timely fashion. I am grateful to the Department of Romance Languages for supporting my application to these grants, and to Miranda Rodway, my teaching assistant, whose diligence enabled me to focus on the manuscript during the final months. Many thanks to Laurenz Feinig for his assistance in preparing the digital screenshot for the art cover. I also thank the Palgrave Macmillan editors for their confidence in my project, and the personnel who assisted me throughout the production process.
xii Acknowledgments I want to thank Robert Redfern-West, editorial director of Academica Press, for granting me permission to use material from the book chapter Young Argentine Filmmakers: Remembering the Past in Times of Crisis, published in Latin American Studies: Critique of Contemporary Cinema, Literatures, Politics, and Revolution, edited by Dr. David Gallagher.I also want to express my gratitude to Dr. Ángel Esteban, editor of Letral. Revista electronica de estudios transatlánticos de literatura, who granted me permission to use material from the article Cómo heredar la militancia política del 60 y 70? Reflexiones en torno a tres cuentos sobre/de la generación de posdictadura en el Río de la Plata.