Argentina's Human Rights Groups and the Politics of Memory: A history of transitions.

EMILSE HIDALGO; ANA SOUTO

University of London, London, UK

Simposio; Between the past and the future: Challenging narratives of memory in Latin America’, Institute for the Study of the Americas,; 2010

Institute for the Study of the Americas - University of London

This co-written paper begins with an overview of how human rights organisations in Argentina have undergone a series of political-juridical transitions in over three decades of historical struggles over State Terrorism, crimes against humanity, and neoliberalism. Dr. Hidalgo will first argue that contrary to recent political thought that tends to think political subjectivity at a remove from the state, these social collectives have aimed at pressurising the state towards a more progressive politics. She first distinguishes four moments of juridical and political transition from the return to democracy up to the present Kirchnerist moment, and then stakes two claims: firstly, that these periods of juridical and political transition have each ushered in a number of challenges to the collective identities of human rights groups, as their type of demand has changed in relation either to the response or lack of response from the State. And secondly, that many institutions, such as memory museums in Argentina, memorials and memory organisations have undergone major changes within each of these periods. She explores how these two dimensions correlate and interact in response to changes during these four periods or moments. Then, Dr. Souto explores how, in the European context, there are several examples of museums and monuments that are dealing with the issues of memory in a similar way as their analogous institutions in Argentina. She cites as an example of this interest the Workshop for the Blind, Museum Otto Weidt, and the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre, both in Berlin. The main goal of these centres is to provide the opportunity to find out more about the German men and women who helped persecuted Jews during the Nazi regime. By doing so, Souto argues, a new understanding of the Holocaust is offered: this project does not aim to impose a certain message with an overwhelming print on the landscape, as other memorials do (Holocaust Memorial in Berlin). The Workshop for the Blind and the Silent Heroes Memorial aim to invite further knowledge on a controversial topic, and in this sense, it is possible to construct a comparative narrative with the Argentinean counterparts.