Memoria Abierta

I am currently working on a semester project, and it consists in comparing how people construct history differently, and what the construction of history entails. I have chosen to watch interviews from survivors of a certain detention center (the ESMA) from the Argentine dictatorship of the 1970s. I'm working with an organization called Memoria Abierta, that is documenting the history of the period, so far with over 500 interviews. I spent 12 hours in three days listening to four people speak, and I have a few more days to go before I am finished. It's exhausting, heart-breaking, fascinating, and question-inspiring.

Background: To make this short, between 1955-1983 there were three "golpes militares" (military overthrows of the elected government): 1955, 1962, 1976. While there was violence in each, the "Dirty War" happened in the last one. 30,000 people "disappeared" (= taken by the government and killed, the majority of the bodies never found). During the 1960s, there were many social changes as there were across the world, and the government thought the only way to suppress the activists and create order was to kill them. So they took them off of streets, out of schools, out of factories, out of their homes, brought them to concentration camps (some in the heart of Buenos Aires), tortured them and then killed them and hid/disposed of their bodies. This dictatorship lasted until 1983. (Side note: like the dictatorships in Chile, Guatemala and elsewhere, the United States actively supported it.)

I have just started really asking questions about the time period. Those who were taken would have been mid-50s now, and their children between 20-30. The history is fresh, virtually untouched, and still very painful for people here. My mom's family hid an activist in their campo house. I just found out a very good family friend was detained and was an intense activist. People's friends and families are "desaparecidos." The past week has been emotionally exhausting.

Why am I interested? I'm sure there's an element of sheer fascination of how this could happen, but mostly... in truth, I'm still trying to figure it out. History touches me on a very deep, compassionate level. I believe in using history to recognize the worth in individuals, to work for freedom, to use it preventatively for the future... and more. So to hear that my friend was detained, to know that my extended family has friends that were disappeared, to live in this beautiful city that just recently experienced so much pain... it's intense. I think I want to know about it to try to understand how it happened, how it could happen, how people are capable of it, to understand and grab hold of the militantes' (activists) ideals of freedom and justice, to empathize with this people and culture I've fallen in love with... I don't know exactly. I'm still trying to figure it out.

If you want me to write more, or have specific questions, let me know and I'll add another entry...

For more information, google "desaparecidos," "Dirty War", go to www.memoriaabierta.org, or just search for information...