ABOUT THIS BOOK

This groundbreaking collection of essays examines how Latin American militaries construct memories of past human rights violations in ways that challenge established public memory and human rights discourse. While previous studies have focused on democratization, transitional justice, and victim-centered narratives, this volume takes a different approach. It highlights the importance of deconstructing the military’s own active memory work, or their “countermemories”—a term the editors use to describe military narratives that are both counterintuitive and that run counter to the victim-oriented memories that have long dominated the region’s public memory.

With attention to the distinct cultural, political, and historical contexts across Latin America, the essays reveal how military figures and institutions appropriate mechanisms of truth-telling and accountability to reframe the past, blur the lines between perpetrator and victim, and weaponize memory itself.

Contributors: Mariana Achugar, Gabriela Fried Amilivia, Rebecca Atencio, Jo-Marie Burt, Rachel Hatcher, Nicolás Rodríguez Idárraga, Michael J. Lazzara, Cynthia E. Milton, Carla Granados Moya, María Emma Wills Obregón, Leith Passmore, Valentina Salvi, Gladys Vásquez Zevallos

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Cynthia E. Milton is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Victoria, director of the Centre for Global Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her books include Conflicted Memory: Military Cultural Interventions and the Human Rights Era in Peru.

Michael J. Lazzara is a professor of Latin American literature and cultural studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the associate vice provost of academic programs and partnerships in Global Affairs at the University of California, Davis. His books include Civil Obedience: Complicity and Complacency in Chile Since Pinochet.

Contributors: Mariana Achugar, Gabriela Fried Amilivia, Rebecca Atencio, Jo-Marie Burt, Rachel Hatcher, Nicolás Rodríguez Idárraga, Michael J. Lazzara, Cynthia E. Milton, Carla Granados Moya, María Emma Wills Obregón, Leith Passmore, Valentina Salvi, Gladys Vásquez Zevallos

REVIEWS

“Examines how the militaries of Latin American countries confront truth commissions, memory sites, trials, and reparations. This book is indispensable for understanding the continent’s ongoing ‘memory wars.’”

— Emilio Crenzel, author of Memory of the Argentina Disappearances: The Political History of “Nunca Más”

“A timely volume. The arguments and analysis offer original perspectives on complicated processes, and the study usefully expands upon foundational sources in the field of memory studies. This excellent text is essential reading.”

— Nancy Gates Madsen, author of Trauma, Taboo, and Truth-Telling: Listening to Silences in Postdictatorship Argentina

“Timely. . . . Milton, Lazzara, and the book’s contributors show how memory is a contested territory and how important political moments such as the establishment of truth commissions, the trials of perpetrators of state violence, and the creation of museums and documentaries can serve as arenas where these memories are disputed.”

— The Latin Americanist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pinochetista

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