This groundbreaking collection of essays by experts in political science, sociology, history, and literature analyzes the nuanced and often contentious interplay between memory, truth, and accountability in contemporary Latin America. While previous studies have examined democratization efforts (and right-wing backlashes), transitional justice, and victim-oriented narratives since the end of the Cold War, this volume takes a new approach. It convincingly demonstrates the importance of deconstructing the militaries’ own active memory work—or rather countermemory work, a term the contributors employ to refer to military memories that are both counterintuitive and run counter to the “victim-oriented” memories that have historically informed Latin American public memory and human rights activism.
With an eye toward particular cultural, political, and historical contexts of the specific countries involved, the collection emphasizes the continuities that come into relief by taking a broader regional focus. The contributors identify the many subtle ways in which past military perpetrators appropriate mechanisms of accountability and truth-telling to reconfigure the past, muddy the distinctions between perpetrator and victim, and weaponize ways of remembering.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I. Refashioning Military Men in Democracies
1 In the Name of the Father: Uncovering the Paternity of Military Memories of Dictatorship in Brazil, Rebecca Atencio
2 Fiction, Freedom, and Relativism: Human Rights in Pinochetista Memory in Post-Pinochet Chile (1998–2019), Leith Passmore
3 Heroes and Genocidaires: Retired Officers of the Argentinian Army and Their Memories of the Recent Past, Valentina Salvi
4 Perpetrator Confessions and Discourses of Impunity in Post-transitional Uruguay: The Cases of Gavazzo and TrÓccoli, Mariana Achugar and Gabriela Fried Amilivia
5 Military Narratives of Heroism and Sacrifice in War Crimes Trials in Guatemala, Jo-Marie Burt
PART II. Memorializing Military Memories
6 “The Hero of Joateca”: The Salvadoran Military’s Stubborn Memory of Domingo Monterrosa, Rachel Hatcher
7 Visualizing Soldiers as Victims: Kidnapping, and Photographic Proof of Survival in Colombia, Nicolas RodrÍguez IdÁrraga
8 Captive to History: Military Memories and Censorship in Public Spaces, Cynthia E. Milton
9 An Unorthodox Relationship: Colombia’s Public Forces and the National Center for Historical Memory (2012–2019), MarÍa Emma Wills Obregon
PART III. Inheriting Military Pasts
10 The Challenges and Risks of Producing “Memory with History” Within the Peruvian Army, Carla Granados and Gladys VÁsquez
11 Relatives of Perpetrators and Collaborators in Chile: Implicated Subjects, Memory, and Responsibility, Michael J. Lazzara
Contributors
Index
