Testimonies and Memories in Villa Grimaldi’s Trajectory

• Published in: Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie V, Historia Contemporánea
• Main Author: Maceira Ochoa, Luz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Spanish
• Published: UNED 2019
• Subjects: Villa Grimaldi; Sitios de memoria; Memorialización; Testimonio; Memoria social; Chile; Memory sites; Memorialization; Testimony; Social memory; Sociología; Terranova
• Online Access: https://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ETFV/article/view/24296; https://doi.org/10.5944/etfv.31.2019.24296

Abstract The article analyses the role of the construction of memories and testimony in the memorialization process of the former Terranova barracks, in what is now the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace. The purpose of this review is to shed light on different social processes which shaped the material and symbolic conditions affecting the construction of a memory site. The analysis highlights the public dimension and uses of the testimonies of survivors, and how they become social voices and agents engaged in the struggle over memory and history. The paper addresses the strategic use of testimonies by social agents entangled in a context they affect and by which they are affected. El presente artículo analiza el lugar del testimonio y la construcción de memorias en la trayectoria de memorialización del que fuera el cuartel Terranova durante la dictadura en Chile, hoy Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi. El objetivo del recorrido propuesto es iluminar distintos procesos sociales en los que se configuran condiciones materiales y simbólicas para la construcción de un sitio de memoria. En el análisis se destacan la dimensión y los usos públicos de los testimonios de las personas que estuvieron secuestradas en el cuartel, y su constitución como una voz/actor social –o como varias voces/actores sociales- en las luchas por la memoria y en el esclarecimiento de la historia. La reflexión identifica el uso estratégico de los testimonios por actores insertos en un contexto en el que inciden y por el que son, a su vez, afectados.AbstractThe article analyses the role of the construction of memories and testimony in the memorialization process of the former Terranova barracks, in what is now the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace. The purpose of this review is to shed light on different social processes which shaped the material and symbolic conditions affecting the construction of a memory site. The analysis highlights the public dimension and uses of the testimonies of survivors, and how they become social voices and agents engaged in the struggle over memory and history. The paper addresses the strategic use of testimonies by social agents entangled in a context they affect and by which they are affected.