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“What We Are, Where We Are Headed”: A Peace March Visits an Ex-torture Center

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Symbols that Bind, Symbols that Divide

Part of the book series: Peace Psychology Book Series ((PPBS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the meaning and role of divided symbols in post-conflict situations through the case of the ex-torture center Villa Grimaldi in post-dictatorship Chile. A network of clandestine detention, torture, and extermination centers operated during Pinochet’s dictatorship, between 1973 and the early 1980s, in numerous cities and towns around the country. In sites such as Villa Grimaldi detractors of the regime experienced brutal state violence while normal life, albeit under dictatorship, went on around them in Santiago de Chile. Villa Grimaldi was demolished in 1987 when members of the intelligence services attempted to transform the site into a residential development. Human rights organizations responded to this attempted erasure with a petition to transform the site into a memorial. In 1994 the center became the Villa Gramaldi Peace Park, dedicated to promoting and defending human rights as well as reconstructing the historical memory of the site. Since then the park has hosted numerous peacebuilding efforts. In 2009, for instance, the Park was included in the route of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which traveled through hundreds of cities and towns in five continents.

In the post-dictatorship landscape, these previously secret centers have come to symbolize the cultural and political battle between amnesia (as the price Chileans must pay for democracy and peace), and remembrance (as a requisite for Chilean democracy and peace). Building on the literature on commemoration, reconciliation, and collective memory (Connerton, 1989; Escobar Nieto & Fernández Droguett, 2008; Gómez-Barris, 2010; Halbwachs, 1992) the chapter examines how the struggle between erasure and remembrance gave birth to a park dedicated to promoting a culture of peace. Through an analysis of testimonies by participants of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence gathered during a concert in Villa Grimaldi, the chapter discusses how a nation’s divided symbols can become part of international efforts to nurture a collective imagination about a culture of peace (cf., Bradbury, 2012).

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Marco Battistella, Antonia Devoto, and Carolina Villar Castillo for the opportunity to collaborate with them during the Memoscopio Project, as well as Michelle Fine, Susan Opotow, and Wendy Luttrell for their ongoing mentoring. This chapter reports on data collected by the Memoscopio Project, which received funding from The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues—Applied Social Issues Internship. The Memoscopio Project has also been fostered by The Public Science Project for Participatory Research and Design at the CUNY Graduate Center and the New Media Lab of the CUNY Graduate Center.

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  1. Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida El Bosque N°1290, Viña del Mar, Chile

    Carolina Muñoz Proto

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  1. Carolina Muñoz Proto
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Correspondence to Carolina Muñoz Proto .

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  1. Psychology, Taylor University, Upland, Indiana, USA

    Scott L. Moeschberger

  2. Coastal Carolina Community College, Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA

    Rebekah A. Phillips DeZalia

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Proto, C.M. (2014). “What We Are, Where We Are Headed”: A Peace March Visits an Ex-torture Center. In: Moeschberger, S., Phillips DeZalia, R. (eds) Symbols that Bind, Symbols that Divide. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05464-3_3

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