tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44236473062951567792024-03-13T04:15:04.353+01:00Memory in Latin America...the news headlines include a number of stories that reflect the persistence of a past that is everlasting and does not wish to pass...
(Jelin, State Repression and the Struggles for Memory, 2003)Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.comBlogger1261125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-4559668132605095812015-10-07T11:55:00.000+02:002015-10-07T11:55:04.641+02:00Book review: The Ministry of Special Cases
Nathan
Englander, The Ministry of Special Cases (Knopf)
I’m a
member of a book-swapping website, so when a book popped up that I’d never
heard of and it turned out to be about “Dirty War”-era Argentina, I was
intrigued and of course I ordered it right away – although not without a slight
feeling of trepidation, because the book was by a non-Argentine, US writer
Nathan Englander. Could a Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-13431358218249152552015-05-19T15:43:00.000+02:002015-05-19T15:43:17.853+02:00Argentina: The ESMA then and nowI enjoy looking at those photos where they juxtapose old and new images to highlight where past events took place. There's been a flurry of them to coincide with European anniversaries of the Second World War, and I previously noted these of Chile.
Now it's the turn of the ESMA. These photomontages are not quite like the other ones I've seen, as there is little attempt to join up the old and Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-63302867049185624312015-05-06T15:20:00.000+02:002015-05-06T15:20:00.774+02:00Book review: The Adventure of the Busts of Eva PerónThe Adventure of the Busts of Eva Perón, by Carlos Gamerro, translated by Ian Barnett in collaboration with the author, published 2015 by And Other Stories
I told someone recently that - no matter how dull it makes me sound - I have to admit I'm not a fan of humorous books. It's hard to explain - I can recognise the humour, even enjoy it, but I'm rarely drawn in to the story as well. I got The Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-6924160100644785992015-03-26T13:34:00.000+01:002015-03-26T13:34:38.771+01:00German president in PeruGerman president Joachim Gauck was visiting Peru, although his visit was cut short by news of the plane crash in France. With that in mind, I've been reading some of the German media coverage. Below is my translation of an article from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on memory of the Peruvian conflict.
An empty
place of memory
Peru has
set up a place of memory for the victims of terrorism with Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-83019985142879933602015-01-26T16:32:00.002+01:002015-01-26T16:32:52.525+01:00Latin American connections with the HolocaustTomorrow we commemorate 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.
Utero.pe has a fascinating article on the Peruvian victims of Auschwitz - I confess, I had no idea there were any. But apparently, there were 17 of them. Like Héctor David Levy, shot for asking for water during forced labour, and his wife and two young children, who were gassed. The two children became Peru's youngest victims ofLillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-86976841156462106472015-01-11T10:39:00.001+01:002015-01-11T10:39:25.730+01:00Peru: Retablos by Edilberto Jiménez
At the Biblioteca Virtual del Genocidio en Ayacucho, you can now see photographs of the amazing retablo scenes made by Edilberto Jiménez (who I previously wrote about here and here) from his book "Universos de memoria".They really are amazing depictions of the violence in the Ayacuchan region of Peru.
Follow this link to get the list of images and then click on "Detalles" to get to a large Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-24064243879518179862015-01-11T10:25:00.002+01:002015-01-11T10:25:49.550+01:00Guatemala: A forensic anthropologist who brings closure for the "disappeared"
Thanks to Mike from Central American Politics for drawing my attention to this TED talk by Fredy Peccerelli on his work as a forensic anthropologist in Guatemala, which is so relevant to this blog that I'm reposting it here. I can only echo his admiration for the work of these incredible, dedicated people. Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-31778188981736312232014-12-28T20:15:00.000+01:002014-12-28T20:15:28.482+01:00Argentina: Human rights achievements of 2014Infojus Noticias provides us with a look back at Argentina's year in human rights, so here's a translation of the main points.
Found grandchildren:
The recovery of the identity of Ignacio Guido Montoya Carlotto on August 5 was the biggest media event of the year, but he was not the first grandchild to be found. On February 6, a young woman was confirmed as the daughter of Oscar Rómulo Gutiérrez Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-57019213382247117902014-12-28T19:20:00.000+01:002014-12-28T19:20:45.679+01:00Most-read posts of 20142014 is drawing to a close and it's been a mixed one for the blog, with life getting in the way quite frequently. Nevertheless, there have been a few highlights in Latin America and in my posts. There's no question about the stand-out LatAm event of the year for me: it was Estela de Carlotto of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo discovering her own grandchild in August. A truly amazing moment, the kindLillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-5738129081307335972014-12-15T08:18:00.000+01:002014-12-15T08:18:25.524+01:00Uruguay: Update on Graf Spee eagleDespite being a bit of a detour from the main focus of this blog, my 2010 post on the eagle of the Graf Spee pocket battleship is one of the most-read posts I've written.
We're over four years on and not much progress has been made. Now the BBC asks "What should Uruguay do with its Nazi eagle?".
The country's supreme court has ruled that the Uruguayan state is the owner of the artifact, but Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-30007707356428844162014-12-13T08:38:00.003+01:002014-12-13T08:40:19.127+01:00Brief update on Brazilian truth commission reportObviously there's been a lot of reporting on Brazil's truth commission, happily Colin from Americas North and South has saved me the job of doing a massive round-up by providing an excellent one here.
I would just add this post by Nina Schneider at Transitional Justice in Brazil on the report ceremony itself.
Also, the report itself can be accessed here (Portuguese). Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-14929078912795103262014-12-13T08:25:00.001+01:002014-12-13T08:25:35.582+01:00Uruguayan prison diary protected by UnescoA diary written on cigarette papers by a Uruguayan political prisoner has been added to Uncesco's Memory of the World programme.
Jorge Tiscornia, a member of the MLN-Tupamaros, kept the diary (known as "El almanaque" in Spanish) during the 12 years he spent in prison during the 1970s and 80s, hiding the papers in a pair of hollowed-out clogs.
In a statement, Unesco said it was "a living memory Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-68853862924579497042014-12-10T18:11:00.000+01:002014-12-10T18:11:18.211+01:00Brazil releases truth commission report Brazil's truth commission report is out.
Here are some of the stark facts:
- illegal arrests, torture, executions and disappearances were systematic during the dictatorship
- 377 perpetrators of human rights abuses identified, around 100 of whom are still alive.
- 434 deaths, probably more but findings limited by difficulty in gaining access to information.
As the Guardian notes,
“Under the Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-67009007788783343792014-10-27T18:57:00.000+01:002014-10-27T18:57:02.440+01:00Colombia: Calls for archives to be made publicColombia's Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH) is calling for documentation and archives on the country's violent conflict to be made public, and particularly to be made available to victims, reports "El Tiempo". It is seeking to consolidate an archive of documents of serious human rights abuses, a project which has been ongoing for over two years now.
The archives of the former Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-89324252011197371852014-09-28T22:29:00.000+02:002014-09-28T22:29:24.232+02:00Chilean exiles in East Germany
I was really interested by this half-hour documentary on Chileans behind the Berlin Wall which I found via Memoria documental.
Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-7504107688118742122014-09-15T09:08:00.001+02:002014-09-15T09:08:52.127+02:00Response to "Memory is not history"The Economist's Bello column this week has a column entitled "Memory is not history", which argues that "there are dangers [in South America’s] intellectual fashion for “historical memory”." It goes on to accuse "the left" of "rewriting history" - in fact, of imposing "memory" over an accurate "history".
I would argue that the piece contains several important distortions, aside from trying to Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-38888455264218590592014-09-11T19:39:00.000+02:002014-09-11T19:39:06.228+02:00Chile: Andrés Cruzat's photomontages of Santiago coupPhotomontages of old and new images which remind us "how things were" have become a bit of a fad recently.
See, for example, this photo slideshow of Cologne, Germany, on Youtube. The clip was extremely popular, but some people, including in the Youtube comments, express concern that it is somehow an overly patriotic view of history - something which is, from the German point of view, highly Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-26116016153856365542014-09-10T18:10:00.003+02:002014-09-10T18:10:57.795+02:00Peru: Exhibition of victims' clothingForensic investigators in Peru have set up an exhibition of items of clothing in the hope that victims' relatives may be able to recognise them and thus identify some of the disappeared.
The exhumations at Los Cabitos army base in Ayacucho took place years ago (see here and here) but the majority of those disinterred have not been identified. Not a single former soldier is in prison for any of Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-59689949150811636842014-09-09T17:04:00.001+02:002014-09-09T17:04:36.664+02:00Argentina: Revenge is a dish best served coldHere's a fantastic radio documentary about Victor Basterra, who worked as a photographer while detained in the ESMA (Spanish only). "Revenge is a dish best served cold", he comments as he explains how he smuggled images of military personnel out of the detention centre, which were later used to convict human rights abusers in court.
El fotógrafo (Radio Ambulante)
Thanks to Steven for drawingLillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-72064367936620168122014-09-06T15:09:00.000+02:002014-09-06T15:09:38.120+02:00Argentina: Photos of 1930 coup
When I write about a coup in Argentina, it's almost invariably the 1976 one - but in fact, this was the sixth coup of the 20th century in the country. Infojus Noticias has some amazing photos from the national archive of the one that kicked them all off, in 1930.
See more here:
Quince fotos inéditas del primer golpe de Estado argentino (Infojus Noticias)Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-21141941043183456932014-09-05T18:16:00.001+02:002014-09-05T18:16:46.833+02:00Brazil: Volkswagen spied on workers in 1980sReuters is reporting that German carmaker Volkswagen spied on union activists and passed sensitive information to Brazil's dictatorship in the 1980s.
VW covertly monitored workers and other unionists including former president Lula.
The news agency reports that the country's truth commission has uncovered documents Volkswagen gave to the military in 1983 and 1984.
In the
documents, Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-20559956346808625392014-08-31T08:29:00.000+02:002014-08-31T08:29:24.318+02:00Update on Chilean archives pieceI recently wrote a piece for NACLA on Londres 38 and the "No más archivos secretos" campaign. Well, there has been a development since I wrote that: the Colonia Dignidad files handed to memory organisations by Chilevisión may now be viewed online (in PDF form). There are thousands of pages here and huge PDFs may not be not the easiest way of accessing them, but the documents have only been out inLillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-48461466437968217322014-08-31T07:59:00.000+02:002014-08-31T07:59:03.579+02:00Argentina: The Madre with the cameraInfojus Noticias has a great piece on Adelina Dematti, a member of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who photographed the group's struggle using a Kodak hidden under her clothes. She said she did it so that her disappeared son Carlos "would know he was not alone, that we were looking for him". She never found out what happened to him.
Her act of recording meetings and demonstrations was extremelyLillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-54931566121147129672014-08-26T17:24:00.000+02:002014-08-26T17:24:09.097+02:00Chile: Lifting the Sentence of SecrecyI've been doing a little writing elsewhere and have a piece up at Nacla on Chile's secret archives and recent moves to open them up. Read the full thing here. Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4423647306295156779.post-44104847101049433292014-08-17T09:25:00.001+02:002014-08-17T09:25:45.603+02:00Argentina: Appeals for those with doubts about their identities to come forwardInfojus Noticias has done a nice piece featuring several of the TV ads the Abuelas have used over the years to encourage people who think they might be children of the disappeared to come forward. This is my favourite:
Lillie Langtryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16857495651566700616noreply@blogger.com0