Public Memorialization in Perspective: Truth, Justice and Memory of Past Repression in the Southern Cone of South America

The end of dictatorial regimes and state-sponsored political repression involves a multilayered process of transition. This entails the development of a democratic institutional apparatus and, at the same time, ways to deal with past crimes and state repression. The task of settling accounts with the past converges with the need to build a different future. This paper deals with one specific arena of this process, namely, the struggles around memories and meanings as reflected in public memorialization. The paper is based on research into the recent experiences of countries coming out of periods of political violence and repression in South America. It analyzes the ways in which societal demands for public memorialization change over time. The past has to be clarified, perpetrators punished, victims recognized and legacies conveyed to future generations. In that process, the politics of recognition and remembrance involve the coming together of institutional, symbolic and subjective dimensions.