Chile 50 Years After the Coup: A Long Day of Militant Memory in Santiago
Keywords:
collective memory, cultural trauma, Salvador Allende, Nueva Canción Chilena, Víctor JaraAbstract
In this article I explore how ritual commemorations contribute to the maintenance of the collective memory of social justice movements and the injustices they seek to remedy. I do so by presenting the results of a participant observation study of an emblematic Latin American case—the fiftieth anniversary of the golpe de estado that brought an end to Chile’s experiment with democratic socialism and the beginning of a bloody 17-year long civilian-military dictatorship that resulted in the dismantling of left-wing social movement organizations through the execution, torture, and disappearance of thousands of Chilean activists. Taking a case-study approach, I describe the events I observed in Santiago during and after La Gran Marcha por los Derechos Humanos on September 10, 2023. In doing so, I highlight the role played by multigenerational singing and musical performance of songs from the repertoire of the Nueva Canción Chilena in the day’s events, paying special attention to the songs of Víctor Jara, the martyred singer-songwriter who was arrested, tortured, and killed by the military in the days following the coup in 1973. In my analysis, I argue that la Nueva Canción and the figure of Jara continue to play an important symbolic role in keeping alive the dream of a more just Chile on the part not only of the generations who themselves experienced the Allende years, the coup, and the dictatorship, but also among young Chileans born after these historic events took place.
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