Community Remembering: Fear and Memory in a Chilean Shantytown

Author(s): Rosemary Barbera

Source: Latin American Perspectives , September 2009, Vol. 36, No. 5, MEMORY AND
POPULAR CULTURE (September 2009), pp. 72-88
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20684672

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 Community Remembering
Fear and Memory in a Chilean Shantytown
by
Rosemary Barbera

The dictatorship in Chile perpetrated massive human rights violations for 17 years,
causing a rupture in social processes and engendering fear in the population. Data being
gathered in an ongoing participatory action research study of the poblaci?n (shanty
town) La Pincoya show that while memory can be debilitating to most persons, it may
empower others. Memories of the practices of the military regime continue to cause fear
in some of the population, affecting community cohesion and participation in local
organizations. This has led to the dismantling of social networks in the community, rob
bing members of their ability to be the protagonists of their own lives.

Keywords: Human rights, Memory, Pear, Chile, Community

During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the human rights violations and political
violence unleashed by military regimes throughout Latin America led to
immense and profound suffering (Garret?n, 1992; Hassett and Lacey, 1991;
Hollander, 1997; Kornbluh, 2003; and Lernoux, 1982). The military regimes
used brutal techniques to subjugate those whom they considered subversive
and to instill profound fear in the populations. These techniques included all
forms of torture, mass detentions and arrests, exile, assassination,
disappearance,1 and arbitrary search and seizure. Poor neighborhoods and
rural peasant communities were especially affected and afflicted by these
practices. Lives were disrupted, families were torn apart, and whole neighbor
hoods and communities were physically and psychologically destroyed. Such
was the situation in Chile.
This rampant, pervasive, and insidious political violence became the pan de
cada d?a (the daily bread) of millions of residents of Chile. The knowledge that
one could become the target of political violence and human rights violations
permeated all aspects of life and caused great anguish. It became a struggle to
survive the economically exploitative conditions imposed by the military
regime, as well as the physically and psychologically repressive practices of
those in power. This article addresses how human rights violations and the
memory of them have affected the social fabric of life in the Santiago poblaci?n
(shantytown) of La Pincoya. Using data collected between 2001 and the
present, it highlights the contrast between the memory of human rights viola
tions and the fear that this engenders and the courage and resilience to keep
on organizing and fighting for a better Chile. At the same time, it points to the

Rosemary Barbera has been working in the La Pincoya poblaci?n in Santiago since 1987. She is
an assistant professor of social work at Monmouth University.
LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 168, Vol. 36 No. 5, September 2009 72-88
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X09341975
? 2009 Latin American Perspectives

72

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 73

existence of competing memories?memories of repression and memories of

mobilizations during the military regime and during the years of the Allende
government. It details the damage to organizations that had been working
together to improve the lives of pobladores and points to the failure of the
governing coalition, the Concertaci?n, to recognize these effects.
Despite some significant periods of authoritarian rule, Chile is considered
to have a tradition of democracy and strong popular movements (Vitale,
1992). The regime of Augusto Pinochet had as its primary aim the destruction
of social movements, collective action, and communal life (Comisi?n Nacional
de Verdad y Reconciliaci?n, 1991; Ensalaco, 2000; Schuurman and Heer, 1992).
La Pincoya is a neighborhood with a good deal of organization, and in fact this
research project was born of a desire of residents to examine the past in order
to understand the present.
While issues related to individuals and families and human rights violations
and political violence have been well documented (see, for example, Almarza,
1990; Brinkman, 1999; Dom?nguez and Weinstein, 1987; Feitlowitz, 1998;
Figley, 1985; Ibacache et al., 1996; ILAS, 1994; Jelin, 2000; Kordon, 1993; Kruijt
and Koonings, 1999; Lira, 1994; 1996; 1997; Lira and Castillo, 1991; Lira and
Weinstein, 1984; Morales, 1991), little research has been conducted at the com
munity level on the influence of widespread human rights violations on com
munity life. Attention has been focused on helping the victims and survivors
of political violence as individuals and families, but little consideration has
been given to the social networks of which those individuals and families are
part (Jelin, 2000). Residents of La Pincoya, for example, feel that the social and
economic achievements of their neighborhood were brutally truncated after
the military coup on September 11,1973, when the regime of Augusto Pinochet
"attempted to desarticular [dismantle] the former society" (Garret?n, 1992:15).
One of the guiding principles of the research in La Pincoya is the importance
of the re-creation of memory (Lira, 1997: 225): "Memory is reconstruction of
past emotions, feelings and perceptions. It makes possible retrospective per
ception and makes necessary reflection on how the past is present in Chileans'
daily lives. This past has been called an open wound?it will not scar. This
affects victims, survivors, and all of Chilean society" (a point also made by
Paz Rojas, personal communication, 2002). Using the moving and persuasive
words and experiences of shantytown residents, this article will discuss this
reconstruction of the past in La Pincoya today.

THE BUILDING OF COMMUNITY IN LA PINCOYA

History is not built out of thin air; rather, it is based on the past and the present.

?Viviana D?az

The history of Chile is replete with examples of grassroots participation and

mobilization. The area that today is called La Pincoya is an example of such
mobilization, as it was formed by a series of land invasions beginning in the
late 1960s. Emblematic of these events is one that began the morning of
October 26,1969, when 5,000 allegados (people without homes of their own) in

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74 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

the northern section of Santiago raised their flags high and converged on an
empty lot on Avenida Guanaco to take it over. Members of a local organization
that had been trying to find solutions to the desperate housing shortage in the
area, they had saved money to finance their own homes and had met with
government officials, but when legal efforts failed they had decided to act on
their own behalf?to be the protagonists of their futures and the futures of
their children and community.
On April 12, 1970, the residents of the original campamento gathered up
their belongings and moved to a site a little to the north, since the site on
Avenida Guanaco had become too small. When they arrived at the new site,
the governmental agency responsible for housing told them that it was unfit
for habitation. The leaders proceeded to negotiate the purchase of the land
from its private owners, and each family was assigned a plot of land and
made responsible for paying for it over a period of years. The leaders were
also able to acquire media-aguas?basic 3 6-meter wooden dwellings?for all
the residents. Using the media-aguas as a base, people began to construct their
own homes, using whatever materials they had available to them.
Once the housing situation was resolved, there were still major challenges
facing the growing poblaci?n, including lack of health care, schools, potable
water, electricity, and public transportation. The leaders worked with the resi
dents to resolve these problems.1 They first established a health center staffed
by volunteers without training in health care and then negotiated the purchase
by the government health service of land and buildings for a health center from
the doctor who owned a large estate at the entrance to the poblaci?n.
The high level of participation of the residents of La Pincoya was fostered by
the policies of the Unidad Popular government. The residents continued to
meet and work toward common goals: common public spaces, schools for the
children, public transportation, improved health care, distribution of milk and
food to families with children and the elderly, and other issues. Youth from left
ist political parties organized themselves into work groups and helped people
construct their homes as well as build plazas and storage facilities to be shared
by all neighborhood residents. Finally, the residents' committee held open elec
tions, as mandated by the Chilean Constitution, and became a junta de vecinos1
(neighborhood association), legitimizing the work of the neighborhood.
This work was altered significantly with the beginning of the military regime.
It was considered subversive, and leaders were hunted down for punishment.
Despite the dire consequences, small groups continued to organize comedores,
ollas communes (neighborhood soup kitchens), and talleres (workshops for learn
ing knitting, sewing, and other ways of earning a living, since many people
were blacklisted). They formed human rights groups to overcome the media
blackout of discussion of human rights issues. Youth organized cultural centers
and colonias urbanas (summer camps) for young children. The number of people
participating was, however, significantly less than before.

DISMANTLING COMMUNITY

Human rights violations have implications for individual survivors and for
society (Lira and Castillo, 1991; Lira et al., 2001; Morales, 1991; Weinstein and

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 75

Lira, 1987). For example, the torturer is a representative of the state?an

official member of the regime?who is acting under official orders. Lira et al.
(2001:12) point out that "when the state is the perpetrator of torture, the same
state that in theory is called to protect and assure constitutional guarantees, a
terrible situation ensues." This has significant repercussions on the social
fabric of society as the act of torture extends beyond the person receiving
the torture to that person's networks. Torture and other forms of political vio
lence send a clear message that those who voice disagreement with the regime
could also find themselves on the wrong side of an electric prod (Corradi,
1992; Lechner, 1992). They also instill fear?fear of torture and fear of one's
neighbors, coworkers, and friends. In this way, the tentacles of this violence
spread into the community at large, enforcing a "rupture in the normal proc
ess of life, a rupture that is forced from the outside, from the dictatorial state,
whose acts violently and abruptly disturb human life" (CODEPU, 1996: 59).
This rupture can have long-lasting implications for the work of community
organizations.
In Chile, state terrorism provoked "generalized fear and collective anxiety"
(CODEPU, 1996) that immobilized possible resistance to the military regime
and its practices. The political repression cut people off from social support
systems as well as altering their relationship to the larger society (Dom?nguez
and Weinstein, 1987), shattering the sense of trust in the community. Therefore,
community members were no longer able to rely on the forms of social capital
(Bourdieu, 1993) upon which they had previously counted. According to
Dom?nguez and Weinstein (1987), the boundaries between what was safe and
what was dangerous were no longer clear, and this affected people's sense of
belonging to their community. This shattering of trust made people more
apprehensive about getting involved with community organizations.
Since the concept of community has been integral to life in the poblaci?n,
enabling members to meet their physical, emotional and psychological needs
(Almarza, 1990; Blackwell, n.d.; Herman, 1992; Oxhorn, 1995), the community
has suffered a great deal as a result of the breakdown of trust and community ties.
Collective action?putting the needs of the group over individual concerns?was
instrumental in changing social structures in Chile (Oxhorn, 1995; Schneider,
1995). The military regime aimed to destroy the ties of community and to force
an individualistic mentality upon Chileans (Leiva, 1998) in order to cure the
society of what it considered the "cancer of communism." Therefore, instead
of turning to neighbors and community members to help meet their needs,
individuals were now forced to rely upon themselves (Leiva, 1998; Paley,
2001). Slowly they lost the habits of solidarity and collective action as they
witnessed and experienced ongoing human rights abuses.
The perfection of state terrorism eliminated the safe spaces where people
could join together in solidarity (Kruijt and Koonings, 1999); "people became
trapped in the fear of fear" (Ibacache et al, 1996: 33), which rendered them
isolated, terrorized, and debilitated. As Rojas points out, "although [Chileans]
are not all the direct victims of the regime, [they] have all been submitted to
the terror, the fear, the psychological manipulation, the human transfigura
tion" (1996: 63): the memory of this "leads [them] to continue to live in a con
stant state of internalized fear" (personal communication, 2002). In interviews
with residents of La Pincoya, fear and mistrust continue to be prevalent and
continue to affect the ways in which people relate to one another.

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 76 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Therefore, an understanding of the memory of past human rights violations

will shed light on present-day realities. As noted by Jelin (2001: 2), "memory
is obstinate?like the film by Patricio Guzm?n, it does not resign itself to stay
in the past, it insists on being present." In Chile this obstinate memory?
memory of both the years of the Unidad Popular and the military regime?is
constantly present, bubbling beneath the surface, although not always
acknowledged or recognized.
Knowledge is a significant form of power, and when memory can be
controlled, knowledge is likewise controlled and becomes subjugated. Being
denied memory is a form of abuse. The sharing of memories can be empower
ing as well as healing for people who have been affected by state terrorism.
"Through the sharing of memory individuals participate in giving meaning to
the past" (Sturken, 1997: 10). When their memories are not legitimated, they
continue to suffer at the hands of their abusers. In Chile there are few spaces
available for sharing the contested memories of the Unidad Popular and the
military regimes. The official discourse is one of modernity?a modern coun
try looks forward, not back. While it is important to recognize what happened,
it cannot be dwelt upon if Chile, an emerging, no longer Third World nation
but one inching closer to the First, is to advance.
According to Kaufman (1998), memory helps us understand the present in
light of our experience of the past. In fact, memory functions "as a thread
through time" (Wolff Reyes, 2001:12) helping us to recall the past in order to
build the future.
Memory intrudes into life in ways that are not always obvious but can be
pervasive. Where the memories are traumatic they may contribute to a "fragility
of identity" (Ricoeur, 1999). At the same time, "the exercise of memory serves
to undo the erasures that are manipulated on a daily basis. It also helps us
reanimate ourselves" (Richard, 2000: 11). The very act of remembering can
serve as an impetus for action and empowerment. Being able to remember
becomes a political act?an act of resistance and resilience?and can keep a
community together. However, "the control of memory is a form of social
control" (Garc?s, 2000: 6): a way of imposing hegemony (Gramsci, 1971) on
the collective. Memory is a form of protest and a resource (Garc?s, 2000) for
maintaining control of one's history and one's life. When there is no opportu
nity to share memories or when remembering is criticized as "dwelling on the
past," people feel less inclined to remember.
Foucault (1977) spoke of countermemories as residual or resistant forms of
knowledge. Countermemories and histories from below make it possible to
overcome subordination. Subordinated people are "deprived of their self-reliance
as persons as well as citizens" (Urbinati, 1998:370). Therefore, the struggle for
memory is about control of society, about democracy and participation, and
memory is a political force: "Since memory is actually a very important factor
in struggle, really, in fact, struggles develop in a kind of conscious moving
forward of history; if one controls people's memory, one controls their dyna
mism" (Foucault, 1980: 82). Memory is active in the individual, in society, and
in the institutions in which individuals and society come together, interact, and
contest the existing order. This is the social memory that powerful sectors of
Chilean society want to control and other sectors of society are working hard
to liberate.

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 77

Memory is also collective. According to Milos (2000: 47), "Halbwachs

defines memory as a symbolic activity that supposes certain social frames of
reference: 'Memory is not possible outside of these frames of reference in
which we live as human beings, in a society.'" Human beings cannot remem
ber without the help of others, since the act of remembering "is not an indi
vidual act, but a collective one. The individual remembers thanks to the
memories of others" (48). As human beings , we need others to exercise our
memory, and in that sense all memory is collective and, being collective, also
political and social (Sturken, 1997:1):

The collective remembering of a particular culture can often appear similar to

the memory of an individual?it provides cultural identity and gives a sense
of the importance of the past. Yet the process of cultural memory is bound up in
complex political stakes and meanings. It both defines a culture and is the means
by which its divisions and conflicting agendas are revealed.

Social memory is "memory associated with historical events that have impacted
the society, affecting the quotidian life of the members of society" (Kovalskys
and Lira, 1996: 27; see also Agger, 1992; Agger and Jensen, 1996; van der Kolk
and McFarlane, 1996).
Finally, memory and the study of memory are full of contradictions. For
some memories are debilitating, while for others they are empowering. As
Stern (2004: 59) notes, "The times of persecution were also times of a more
positive awakening?a strengthening of one's social commitments, a reawak
ening and validation of one's identity and values." The data from this research
project give testimony to the important place memory has in daily life for
individuals, communities, and society. The words of the research partners and
the participants eloquently articulate both the contradictions of memory and
its importance. Before sharing their perceptions and experiences, however, a
brief discussion of methodology is in order.

A WORD ON METHODOLOGY

The study of memory in La Pincoya reported here comes out of a tradition

of research as a shared enterprise between social scientists and community
members. Although I served as the research coordinator, community mem
bers were partners every step of the way, from designing the interview guide
to discussing the results. Therefore, this project is a contribution to the grow
ing body of literature that recognizes the importance and validity of research
done with, not for or about, community members. It is also carried out in
terms of a new language that partners can use to reshape and change reality.
The approach adopted was participatory action research, a methodology
that permits interaction, social dynamics, and partnership in all aspects of the
research process and recognizes the relationship between researcher and par
ticipants (Fals Borda, 1997; Smith, 1997; Whyte, 1991). This methodology also
allows us to ground the study in the ongoing struggles of the community and
to use the results to plan concrete actions for change. The community's strug
gles will inform, frame, and structure the work in meaningful ways. In this
project participatory action research informs a particular political agenda that

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78 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

emerges from the grass roots in La Pincoya. The research agenda grows from
the concerns of residents of La Pincoya to further their political agenda and
their liberation from the oppressive structures imposed upon them by the
military regime and persisting today.
The research group that came together casually as we drank wine and
talked into the early hours of the morning became formalized as partners in the
research process. The group included members of the board of directors of the
neighborhood association, young people from various political parties, a
youth group leader, some young women from a cultural center, and members
of a Christian community. We discussed the focus of the investigation and
how to proceed, developed a time line, and constructed an interview guide.
I led the process by offering examples from the literature and distributing
drafts of ideas. We discussed those ideas and refined our plan in terms of our
particular situation and the resources available to us.
In consultation with research partners and community leaders, a purposive
sample of past and present leaders in La Pincoya was selected for intensive
interviews. These persons served as both key informants and research part
ners, and they were asked to provide information about themselves and obser
vations of the participation of others before, during, and after the dictatorship.
They were also asked to provide the names of other possible interviewees,
producing a snowball or network sample. Both persons who had been directly
affected by political violence and human rights violations and persons who
had been indirectly affected (e.g., living in a poblaci?n where people were
summarily rounded up and tortured) were chosen for participation.
We decided to begin by interviewing community leaders of different
political, religious, and organizational persuasions to get a sense of how these
leaders viewed community life and collective participation in La Pincoya. We
also wanted to learn about their memories of the poblaci?n and understand
what they wanted to see happen. After interviewing the leaders, we wanted to
interview both people who participated in political, religious, cultural, or social
organizations and people who did not. In this way we would be able to gather
a broad range of opinions and perspectives. However, we made a conscious
decision not to interview people who were active in the repressive mechanisms
of the military regime. We approached our work from a political standpoint
that was strongly critical of the military regime, and we wanted to be faithful
to our commitment to human rights and not to frighten participants.
We conducted 62 interviews: 45 with individuals or families and 17 with
groups or organizations. During the first phase of the data collection we inter
viewed 15 leaders of diverse organizations in La Pincoya and 5 representa
tives of organizations that had branches in La Pincoya but whose central
offices were in downtown Santiago. We also conducted a number of group
interviews both in La Pincoya and in other venues. During the second phase
of data collection we conducted 15 more individual interviews, 10 with peo
ple active in organizations and 5 with people who were not active. At that
time, we also reinterviewed 15 persons from the original data set. The initial
interviews lasted one to two hours, and the follow-up interviews lasted
between 30 minutes and an hour.
The interviews, conducted in a place decided upon by the person or persons
being interviewed, produced a body of knowledge that we used in critical

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 79

analysis of present reality in La Pincoya and in Chile. Although some of the

information gathered through the interviews had been previously known, the
connections among the themes that emerged in the interviews were new. By
gathering information in these interviews, we were able to begin to plan steps
toward change.
We also engaged in participatory observation. Research partners attended
their regular group and community meetings as researchers taking field notes
and asking questions of the other group members.
Data analysis was an ongoing process. While data collection was in progress,
the data were reviewed with for themes and issues for possible follow-up
interviews. Preliminary themes were identified: thus the subsequent data col
lections could take advantage of these themes. This also allowed us to go back
to some participants for clarification if needed. The research findings were
shared with the community leaders.

COMMUNITY REMEMBERING

A number of themes emerged from our data. With regard to memory,

underlying these themes are two central ideas?the memory of the fear people
experienced on a daily basis during the military dictatorship and the fear that
memory invokes in people even today. These are connected in intricate ways
as they permeate the experiences of daily life?relationships with neighbors,
interactions with authorities, and the like. According to those interviewed, during
the military regime fear reduced people's ability and willingness to become
involved in organizations and their trust in their neighbors. Fear permeated the
daily lives and the activities of the residents of La Pincoya, and the memory of
that fear continues to permeate many aspects of community life today.
Residents of La Pincoya constantly refer to their memories of other times?
some better, some worse. It was easy to get people to discuss their memories
of the founding of La Pincoya but not so easy to get some of them to speak in
specifics about the military dictatorship. They would talk in generalizations
but had to be gently prodded to speak about specific incidents. The people
who had remained active in neighborhood organizations did not mind talking
about those years. The people who had not remained as involved were shyer,
but in the end all of them talked about their memories.
T?mara (interviewed in 2001 and 2006), a woman in her late forties who
had been active in the the youth movement of the Unidad Popular, said,
"Memory is a contradiction. On the one hand, we are not permitted to have
memories, and on the other, our memory is intrusive in all aspects of our
lives." T?mara was talking about the way the memories of the dictatorship
intrude into the lives and relationships of Chileans. She continued: "We can
not help but remember when we see our neighbors. We remember how they
have suffered, or if they supported the military. Our relationships are saturated
with these memories."
Others agreed with T?mara and said that the quality of their lives had
changed because they no longer had the profound friendships of earlier times.
Nino (interviewed in 2001,2002, and 2007), a carpenter who had lost a number
of jobs when his clients found out he did not support the dictatorship, said,

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80 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

"Before [the dictatorship] we all knew that we were together in this project of
building our neighborhood and creating community. We could trust one
another. Now, trust is something that takes a long time to earn." Nino and his
family were affected both during the dictatorship and after, since just two
years ago he lost a job because the employer found out he had not been a
Pinochet supporter.
Edith (interviewed in 2002 and 2004), a woman in her thirties who had
grown up during the military regime and become active in a Christian base
community, said, "The dictatorship is not a memory?it is an ongoing process,
since every day we are reminded of our pain and suffering." This pain and
suffering continue to affect the daily lives of Chileans. As a man in his forties
from the Escuela Popular (a free evening school for people who have dropped
out of high school) put it, "The dictatorship did not just leave its stamp on our
lives in the past. It continues to leave its mark today in everything that we do."
This was reiterated by another man: "The dictatorship is alive in this country,
but no one talks about it" (personal communication, 2003).
Most participants from 2001 until the present agree that the pain and
suffering took a variety of forms. For some, memories of a time when health
care was more equitable and workers had certain rights bring pain and suf
fering. For others, the scars of torture continue to reopen, causing serious
disruption. For still others, the memory of working together to solve prob
lems is contrasted with the reality of today, when most people, according to
Johnny, who works with youth in La Pincoya and has been active in this
research project from the start, "are only concerned about their metro cuadrado
[square meter]. People have been taught, by violent means, to believe in indi
vidualism. As a result, they have left behind their participation in community
organizations."
At the same time that memory is intrusive and is always present, there is
also a dominant discourse holding that, as Edith said, "To be modern is to live
in the future." Beginning with the military regime and continuing with the
elected administrations, the dominant discourse has favored leaving the past
behind. Lily (interviewed on various occasions between 2002 and 2007), a
community leader from the Escuela Popular, noted "We are denied our mem
ory. Our memories are not important and are not given credence. They [the
military] changed our history. We tried to hold on, but we lost the capacity to
fight it and now they have won." According to Luzmenia, one of the founders
of the poblaci?n, "People have lost their history and memory, and this is dan
gerous since we will not be able to build a future without remembering the
past. This has led us to be passive recipients of other people's ideas. We no
longer think for ourselves or engage in analysis." Luzmenia, who had been a
community leader for over three decades and was involved in the research
project, often talked about the changes she had witnessed in the poblaci?n.
She mourned the time when neighbors would solve their own problems or
work as partners with the government to solve problems. Today, she said,

people wait for someone else to come along to solve their problems. They do
not take action against problems, like drug addiction, that are ravaging our
community. This, I believe, is a direct consequence of the military regime. First
they violated our human rights through torture, assassination, disappearance, and

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 81

exile. Then they came back for more by violating our human rights with the impo
sition of a new economic model that stresses the individual over the collective.

Luzmenia brought up a point that others also mentioned?that the dictator

ship violated not only political and civil human rights through torture and the
like but also economic human rights, an insidious form of repression. She
went on to say that the governments of the Concertaci?n have continued to
violate economic human rights by supporting low salaries, poor working con
ditions, laws that favor business owners rather than workers, poor school
systems, and inadequate health care. While the civil and political human rights
violations have almost disappeared, the economic human rights violations
continue. Therefore, they are not just memory but alive today.

THE PARALYSIS OF FEAR AND THE INTRUSION OF MEMORY

T?mara and her co-worker Corina, who sew clothes in their homes, talked
about how fear and its memory have limited Chilean society. They said that
fear permeated all aspects of life and had led to a Chilean society that was dull
and had lost its passion for life: "Fear limits us?it takes from us the right to
express ourselves in ways that give us meaning" and reduces Chileans to
solitary people who do not voice their concerns. Corina also said,

I participated for many years in a grass-roots human rights group in the poblaci?n.
After the end of the military regime, our human rights groups asked the council at
our chapel, where I was an active member of the Christian community, if we could
use the meeting room for our human rights meeting. The council voted against our
petition?they were afraid, in 1990, to be associated with human rights.

The participants in the Escuela Popular spent a good deal of time discussing
the fear in Chilean society and how its memory persists. They said that fear
had led Chileans to mistrust not just strangers but even members of their own
families. People did not want to talk about the country's most recent history
because they were afraid they would be persecuted, and many had taken ref
uge in drugs and alcohol. The fear that these participants talked about had
almost prohibited them from participating in the Escuela Popular. When the
organizers of the school tried to recruit people, they were met with distrust.
According to Chila, the director of the school, who had been involved
throughout this research project, "It was not easy to get this off the ground?
people did not trust us and were afraid of getting involved. So we had to go
through a long process of creating confidence and trust."
The memory of fear creates sense of vulnerability in people. Benedicta
(interviewed more than five times between 2001 and the present), a woman in
her early sixties who had been an active member of Christian base communities
since the 1960s, talked about this:

All during the dictatorship we felt vulnerable?there was always the possibility
that we could be taken next, that the violence would touch us personally and
severely. I think we expected that when the dictatorship was over, that sense
would go away. But it still strongly lingers in our collective. We try not to talk
about it, but when we do, we are sure to use hushed tones.

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82 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Benedicta continued to be active in her community because she knew that

many other people were unwilling to risk being active. On the one hand, her
participation contradicts the idea that fear is immobilizing; on the other, she
participated because others were immobilized by fear. This kind of contradiction
was common in our results, and we continue to examine it.
Living in a society consumed by fear has contributed to a lack of participation
in community organizations. Schneider (1995:202) notes that "many succumbed
to what Chilean psychologists have labeled a 'state of numbness,' a conse
quence of living most of their lives under constant threat of death." The state
of numbness dulled the senses and increased isolation and led people to
experience heightened anxiety. A common response when one is asked "How
are you doing?" is "I am sick with nerves." During the military regime, many
people not involved in politics of social organizations were also constantly
"sick with nerves." Those who were involved in the ollas comunes, coopera
tives, and other organizations were better able to overcome anxiety because of
their participation. Jorge, Luzmenia's partner, was arrested, tortured, and sent
into internal exile on numerous occasions. Luzmenia was likewise arrested and
tortured repeatedly. Despite this Luzmenia continued to participate:

I knew I had a community to which I could return and people who would
support me. Not everyone had such a community, and many people were too
afraid to return to their communities. I think those of us who felt a strong con
nection to some sort of organization?a political party, the Church, a grassroots
organization?fared better because we did not suffer alone. I feel less of that
today, quite frankly.

The general anxiety carried over after the end of the military regime. As
Luzmenia explained, "People always seem to be nervious; they look over
their shoulders and look around to see who might be watching and listen
ing in. I understood this during the military regime, but it still happens 15
years later."
This was evidenced at a meeting of community leaders in the comuna
(municipality) of Huechuraba, in which La Pincoya is located, in the winter of
2003. The leaders of the neighborhood associations had gathered to meet with
the mayor of Huechuraba to complain about how people had been treated
during recent rainstorms. Before the mayor arrived, the conversation was
animated and frank. People complained, talked about how they had been
disrespected by the municipal workers, and began to devise a strategy to con
front the mayor. However, during this animated conversation they constantly
looked toward the back of the room to see if the mayor or her representatives
had yet arrived. When the entourage did arrive, people suddenly became
quiet. They listened to the mayor, and only three or four community leaders
spoke up. The rest of the room was silent. It was a stark difference from the
earlier animated state of the room. I asked people about it, and they mostly
replied that since the mayor was from the Uni?n Democr?tica Independiente
(Independent Democratic Union?UDI), considered the party of Pinochet,
they were afraid to confront her?13 years after Pinochet left La Moneda and
5 years after he had been arrested in London.3 After the meeting I commented
on what had happened to the residents of La Pincoya and asked them how
they would have reacted. For the most part they agreed that while they might
complain about the municipal government, they would not do so with the

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 83

mayor or her staff in the room, and they became agitated as I probed deeper.
They were still anxious and afraid.
Anxiety is experienced as part of both individual and collective memory.
Collective memory is active?it needs to be told. If it is not shared, it remains in
bodies and is buried in secrecy. It is necessary that people share their memories
in order to overcome the past and build for the future. As Stern (2004: 105)
points out, "Memory is the meaning we attach to experience, not simply recall
of events and emotions of that experience" (see also Stern, 2000). In Chile, how
ever, people felt that this was not permitted. According to the Chilean sociolo
gist and harsh critic of both the dictatorship and the Concertaci?n, Tom?s
Moulian (1998: 17), "Obligatory amnesia was decreed so that nothing could
perturb the 'virtuous' memory of the period of military rule." This amnesia was
imposed by both the military and the Concertaci?n governments that came
after. The military imposed it through terror and the constitution, while the
Concertaci?n did so through the discourse of modernity and through a control
led conversation about what happened in Chile during the military regime. As
Lily put it, "The time after 1990 is a time of forgetting." However, there can be
severe consequences to forgetting and to the repression of memory, especially
in the cases of traumatic events perpetrated by repressive regimes.
Kai Erikson (1976:135), in his book about the "natural"4 disaster of Buffalo
Creek, argue that the effects of trauma are persistent and long-lasting. "The
smell still hung in the air more than a year later and now the damage is unre
lenting. The worst damage, though, was done to the minds and the spirits of
the people who survived the disaster, and it is there that one begins the search
for scars." These are the scars of memory?the scars that are not visible to the
naked eye but are always present and do not heal: "There is no rest [for survi
vors] because memory has not been 'deposited' anywhere; it remains only in
the minds and hearts of the people" (Jelin, 1998: 28). Unless the memory can
be deposited and can be expressed in a dignified way, the unrest continues.
Memory exists in the here and now, and it can be present in healthy and
legitimate ways or it can be clandestine, festering beneath the surface.
However, unease is not always negative. It can, for example, lead to
mobilizations and movement for change. This has been true to some extent in
La Pincoya, where a group of people for many years opposed the demolition
of the former police station, hoping to preserve it as a museum in honor of
residents who lost their lives during the military regime. While the police sta
tion was ultimately destroyed, on its former site now stands a memorial to the
disappeared and assassinated of Huechuraba. At the same time, young people
involved in the summer camps of La Pincoya have been involved in painting
murals, usually invoking human rights, throughout the poblaci?n.The murals
became an important part of Luzmenia's 2008 campaign for City Council. Her
name was painted off to the side so that after the campaign it could be erased,
leaving the murals to contribute to the reconstruction of "past emotions, feel
ings, and perceptions" (Lira, 1997: 225) and discussion of their relevance for
today.
"To forget does not imply a void or a vacuum. It is the presence of the
absence, the representation of what once was there and no longer is, the repre
sentation of something that has been erased, silenced, or denied" (Jelin, 1998:
29), at least officially, though not in the minds of the affected. "These crimes

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84 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

will forever remain in the persons directly affected, and also in society, in the
collective imagination, which will transmit them for generations" (Rojas, 2000:
28). Collective imagination survives in both conscious and unconscious, posi
tive and negative ways. In short, it too is contradictory, for it leads some people
to remain silent and isolated while at the same time it empowers others to
organize for change and memory. When people talk about the years of the dic
tatorship, they are not always aware that they are looking around them to
make sure that no one else can hear what they are saying. Questioned about
this, however, they begin to recognize that this is a leftover response from the
dictatorship and part of their deep-seated memory of those times.
In order to be aware of memory and its effects, it is necessary to bring it
back to life. "To practice memory is to make vibrant the symbolism of remem
bering in all of its critical potentiality to reconstruct and deconstruct narra
tives and discourse" (Richard, 2000:11). Because memory is the reconstruction
of past emotions, feelings, and perceptions, it plays an important role in the
reconstruction of community as well, since it permits community members to
reflect on the past in such a way as to make sense of the present. It allows us
to engage in the process of praxis?reflection, study, action?that is necessary
to build and change community (Freir?, 1972).

CONCLUSIONS

While many in the Chilean government today see the past as something to
be honored, they do not understand that the past is still alive in the memory
of the Chilean people. For those in government, what happened during the
military regime ended in 1990, when the newly elected government estab
lished the Comisi?n de Verdad y Reconciliaci?n; the abuses of the military
regime?social, civil, economic, cultural, and political?were over, and it was
time for Chile to move forward and become a "modern" country. What those
who subscribe to this discourse neglect or choose not to understand is that
many Chileans have vivid memories of the recent past. As the noted psychia
trist and human rights activist Paz Rojas explained (personal communication,
2002), "Healing has not happened in Chile because healing would assume that
the wound had begun to scar, and the wound in Chile is still very much
open." The people of La Pincoya would agree and would add that the wound
prevents them from re-creating the organizations in which they could come
together to rebuild a vibrant community. While it is true that the governments
of the Concertaci?n have engaged in some gestures toward reconciliation,
many people see these as necessary but not sufficient; others see them as
purely symbolic and still others as offensive to the memory and lives of their
loved ones, since there is no element of justice.
In La Pincoya, leaders talk about how memories and the fear associated with
them keep people isolated from one another and afraid to get involved in com
munity organizations and activities. They are emphatic that the military regime
was successful in changing the minds of Chileans so that they are much more
individually focused. They attribute this to the campaign of terror waged
upon Chile by the Pinochet regime through the widespread and systematic
use of torture, assassination, disappearance, and exile.

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 Barbera / MEMORY IN A CHILEAN SHANTYTOWN 85

This fear of being further hurt and/or disenfranchised has meant that to
recall and to rebuild have become suspect activities in Chile today. While lead
ers of human rights and popular organizations want memory to be central in
Chilean discourse and practice, they are often chided for living in the past.
Perhaps they do have one foot in the past, but it is only as a way to honor that
past, build on it, and construct a better future. In this process they recognize
that memory is a political force and can be a powerful tool in building a new
society based upon participatory democracy and human rights.

NOTES

1. These leaders would later receive training, although underground, during the dictatorship.
Many of them still work, in a voluntary capacity, in the public health sector.
2. A junta de vecinos is the most basic form of governance in Chilean society. It has legal
representation before the mayor and city council of a comuna (municipality) and is entitled to
receive municipal funds for its work, as well as apply for government grants.
3. Many have suggested that Chilean society opened up dramatically after the arrest of
Pinochet in London. They say that this is evidenced by the number of books related to human
rights that were written after that point. While it is true that in certain circles people may have
felt freer to discuss their experiences of the military regime, for large parts of the population fear
and anxiety remained.
4. While the flooding of Buffalo Creek could be seen as a "natural" disaster since the
precipitating event was a heavy rainfall, the fact that mining companies had created the condi
tions for the flooding and had raped the land and left it destitute leads me to believe that it was
an orchestrated disaster.

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