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Commemorative Palimpsests In Post-Authoritarian Argentina: The Case Of Esma, Emily R. Nelsen

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

The authoritarian military regime in Argentina (1976-1983) left lasting impacts on the country’s social, political, and economic way of life. Characterized by thousands of violations of human rights, this period in history is still felt in Argentine society as activists and families search for truth. Simultaneously, other actors prefer to deny responsibility and argue for the need to move on, thus renouncing the legacy of state terror. ESMA, a notorious former clandestine torture center in Buenos Aires, became a site of memory on March 24, 2004, a date that also came to symbolize the anniversary of the coup d’état. Using …