Reading Memoria Activa's Discourse: Demands for Justice and Identity Symbols

FISCHMAN, FERNANDO; PELACOFF, JAVIER

Landscapes of Memory and Impunity. The Aftermath of the AMIA Bombing in Jewish Argentina

Brill Publishers

Lugar: Boston; Año: 2015; p. 44 - 58

This chapter examines the discourse of Memoria Activa in order to establish how it articulates a particular cultural identity and a universal collective demand. Our research focuses on the explicit public discourse, that is, the one uttered in speeches in the context of the weekly demonstrations often times broadcast live by some cable news channels and their transcriptions printed for further dissemination. Through the analysis of these concrete materials, we intend to gain an understanding of some of the implications of their protest. The specific material that we take into consideration for this work is a fragment of an editorial note published in a publication of the civil association Memoria Activa in July 1999, five years after the bombing and thus marking five years of ongoing and relentless protest. Thus, we access an expression that condenses reflectively the various components that were to ultimately constitute the singular discourse of this group, one that provided it with an identifiable political voice among the many others that surfaced in a national context of growing social unrest.