Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Treading the ground of contested memory: archivists and the human rights movement in Chile

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archival Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article proposes a new definition of social justice that is based in liberation theology. It questions the relationship between archival practice and social justice and asks how (and whether) social justice can (or should be) a transformative force in the archival profession. These theoretical questions are examined through a case study of human rights archives. The author travelled to Chile in December 2011 to interview archivists and human rights activists and visit human rights archives, museums, and memorials. The article identifies three archival processes by which archivists in Chile engage in social justice activism: the act of documenting human rights violations that dictator Augusto Pinochet perpetrated during his rule from 1973 to 1990; by continually acquiring new documents that bear witness to these violations; and by providing, indeed encouraging and promoting, access to these materials. The article argues that the way that human rights archivists carry out these archival processes allows the community to participate in building both the archives and the memory of the dictatorship. It concludes by stating that this connection between the archives and the community is one of the primary ways in which social justice can be integrated into the archival profession.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agosín M (2008) Tapestries of hope, threads of love: the arpillera movement in Chile. Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldama J (1974) Teología de la liberación: conversaciones de Toledo, 1973. [Liberation Theology: Conversations in Toledo, 1973] I.T. San Ildefonso

  • Aldunate J (1989) Derechos humanos, derechos de los pobres. [Human Rights, Rights of the Poor]. Rehue, Santiago

  • Arcaya ÓG (1999) La transición chilena a la democracia: pactada. [The Chilean Transition to Democracy: An Agreement]. Estudios Públicos 79

  • Arzobispado de Santiago Fundación Documentación y Archivo de la Vicaria de la Solidaridad (n.d.). Historia: Comité de Cooperación Para la Paz en Chile. [History of the Committee of Cooperation for the Peace in Chile]. http://www.archivovicaria.cl/historia_01.htm. Accessed 27 Sep 2011

  • Assmann H (1978) Carter y la lógica del imperialismo. [Carter and the Logic of Imperialism]. Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, Costa Rica

  • Bastian JA (2003) In a “House of Memory:” discovering the provenance of place. Arc Issues J Midwest Arc Conf 28(1):9–19

    Google Scholar 

  • BBC Mundo (2012) Chile: cambian textos escolares para que no hablen de “dictadura” sino de “régimen.” [Chile: Changes school texts so that they do not speak of “dictatorship,” but instead “regimen”]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ultimas_noticias/2012/01/120104_ultnot_chile_textos_escolares_tsb.shtml. Accessed 25 Mar 2012

  • Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (n.d.) La Reforma Agraria (1962–1973)—Presentación. Memoria Chilena. http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/index.asp?id_ut=lareformaagraria(1962-1973). Accessed 15 Mar 2012

  • Bickford L (2000) Human rights archives and research on historical memory: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Latin Am Res Rev 35–2:160–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanco-Rivera J (2009) Truth commissions and the construction of collective memory: the Chile experience. In: Bastian J, Alexander B (eds) Community archives: the shaping of memory. Facet Publishing, London, pp 133–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Brahm E (2007) Uncovering the truth: examining truth commission success and impact. Int Stud Perspec 8:16–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caswell M (2010) Khmer rouge archives: accountability, truth, and memory in Cambodia. Arch Sci 10(1):25–44. doi:10.1007/s10502-010-9224-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleary E (1985) Crisis and change: the church in Latin America today. Orbis Books, New York http://domcentral.org/library/cleary_books/crisis/crisis03.pdf. Accessed 2 Mar 2012

  • Constable P, Valenzuela A (1993) A nation of enemies: Chile under Pinochet. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook M (2006) Professional ethics and practice in archives and records management in a human rights context. J Soc Arch 27(1):1–15. doi:10.1080/00039810600691205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corporación de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo—CODEPU (n.d.). Quienes Somos. [Who we are]. http://www.codepu.cl/quienes.htm. Accessed 22 Mar 2012

  • Department of Religious Studies (2020), University of Texas, Austin (n.d.). Bibliography on Liberation Theologies | Liberation Theologies. http://liberationtheology.org/books-videos/liberation-theologies-bibliography/. Accessed 8 Nov 2013

  • Derechos Chile (n.d.) Organismos de Derechos Humanos. [Human Rights Organizations]. www.derechoschile.com/espanol/ongs.htm. Accessed 25 Mar 2012

  • Dorfman A (2010) Whose memory? whose justice? A meditation on how and when and if to reconcile. 8th Nelson Mandela Lecture. http://www.nelsonmandela.org/images/uploads/whose_memory_whose_justice_final_version_july_2010_for_publication_purposes.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2012

  • Engler M (2003) Toward the “rights of the poor:” human rights in liberation theology. In: Gottlieb RS (ed) Liberating faith: religious voices for justice, peace, and ecological wisdom. Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, pp 203–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Flinn A (2010) An attack on professionalism and scholarship?. Democratising Archives and the Production of Knowledge, Adriadne 62

    Google Scholar 

  • González Quintana A (2009) Archival policies in the protection of human rights. International Council on Archives, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene M (2013) A critique of social justice as an archival imperative: what is it we’re doing that’s all that important? Am Arch 76:302–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs M (1992) On collective memory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris VS (2007) Archives and justice: a South African perspective. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris VS (2011) Madiba, memory and the work of justice. The Alan Patton Lecture. http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Files/ALAN%20PATON%20LECTURE%202011.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2012

  • Jimerson R (2007) Archives for all: professional responsibility and social justice. Am Arch 70(2):252–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jimerson R (2009) Archives power: Memory, accountability, and social justice. Society of American Archivists, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Jimerson R (2013) Archivists and social responsibility: a response to Mark Greene. Am Arch 76:335–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ketelaar E (2002) Archival temples, archival prisons: modes of power and protection. Arch Sci 2(3):221–238. doi:10.1007/BF02435623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazzara M (2006) Chile in transition: the poetics and politics of memory. University Press of Florida, Florida

    Google Scholar 

  • Mnjama N (2008) The Orentlicher principles on the preservation and access to archives bearing witness to human rights violations. Inf Dev 24(13):213–225. doi:10.1177/0266666908094837

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos (n.d.). La Geometría de la Conciencia, Obra Permanente del Museo de la Memoria. [The Geometry of the Consciousness, Permanent Work of the Museum of Memory] http://www.museodelamemoria.cl/expos/la-geometria-de-la-conciencia/. Accessed 1 April 2012

  • Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos (n.d.) Itinerante. [Itinerant] www.museodelamemoria.cl/?s=itinerante. Accessed 2 April 2012

  • Ortiz Rojas ML et al (2002) Tesauro de Derechos Humanos. [Thesaurus of Human Rights]. Comisión Chilena de Derechos Humanos, Santiago

  • O’Toole J (2004) Archives and historical accountability: toward a moral theology of archives. Archivaria 58:3–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrella I (2004) The future of liberation theology: an argument and manifesto. Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz JM, Cook T (2002) Archives, records, and power: the making of modern memory. Arch Sci 2(1–2):1–20. doi:10.1007/BF02435628

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith C (1991) The emergence of liberation theology: radical religion and social movement theory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Spivak G (1985) Can the subaltern speak? Speculations on widow-sacrifice. Wedge 7(8):120–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern SJ (2004) Remembering Pinochet’s Chile: on the eve of London, 1998. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (1948) The universal declaration of human rights. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml. Accessed 8 Nov 2013

  • Valderhaug G (2011) Memory, justice and the public record. Arch Sci 11(3–23):14–23. doi:10.1007/s10502-010-9110-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace D (2010) Locating agency. J Inf Eth 19(1):172–189. doi:10.3172/JIE.19.1.172

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the Office of Sponsored Programs at Simmons College, provider of the Student Research Fund grant, which made this research possible. The intellectual guidance of Dr. Terry Cook and Dr. Joel Blanco-Rivera has been invaluable to this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 3 James St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Amanda Strauss

Authors
  1. Amanda Strauss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda Strauss.

Appendix

Appendix

Research Instrument, Interview Guide

English

  1. 1.

    What is your current position with [insert name of archival repository]?

  2. 2.

    What is the nature of your current project(s)?

  3. 3.

    Are you collaborating with other archivists within your repository or at another repository?

  4. 4.

    Why did you decide to become an archivist?

  5. 5.

    Why did you decide to work in a repository that documents human rights violations?

  6. 6.

    Do you have any personal experience with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet?

  7. 7.

    Based on your personal and professional observations, how do you think the Chilean people remember the dictatorship, particularly the human rights violations and the disappeared?

  8. 8.

    How does your work fit into the national and historical memory of the dictatorship and the human rights violations and the disappeared?

  9. 9.

    Do you think your work plays a role in promoting national reconciliation?

  10. 10.

    What are your personal feelings about the dictatorship and the human rights violations?

  11. 11.

    Does your repository receive formal or informal support from the community and/or from political officials?

  12. 12.

    Does your repository receive support from other Human Rights Organizations?

Spanish translation

  1. 1.

    ¿Cuál es su presente rol en [insert name of archival repository]?

  2. 2.

    ¿Cuál es el origen y objetivo del proyecto en el que está trabajando en estos momentos?

  3. 3.

    ¿Está trabajando en colaboración con otros archivistas en su institución o en otra institución?

  4. 4.

    ¿Por qué decidió trabajar como archivista?

  5. 5.

    ¿Por qué decidió trabajar en una institución que documenta violaciones a los derechos humanos?

  6. 6.

    ¿Cuál es su experiencia personal con respecto a la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet?

  7. 7.

    Basado en sus observaciones personales y profesionales, ¿Cómo cree que los chilenos recuerdan la dictadura? ¿Cómo cree que los chilenos recuerdan las violaciones de los derechos humanos?

  8. 8.

    ¿Cómo cree que su trabajo calza dentro de la memoria y el registro histórico del país en cuanto a la dictadura, las violaciones de los derechos humanos, y los desaparecidos?

  9. 9.

    ¿Cree que su trabajo promueve la reconciliación nacional?

  10. 10.

    ¿Cuáles son sus sentimientos acerca de la dictadura y las violaciones a los derechos humanos?

  11. 11.

    ¿Su institución recibe apoyo formal o informal por parte de la comunidad y/o funcionarios del estado?

  12. 12.

    ¿Su institución recibe apoyo de otras organizaciones de derechos humanos?

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Strauss, A. Treading the ground of contested memory: archivists and the human rights movement in Chile. Arch Sci 15, 369–397 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9223-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-014-9223-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation