Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America

Memory Inventory: The Production and Consumption of Memory Goods in Argentina

s u s a n a k a i s e r Memory Inventory The Production and Consumption of Memory Goods in Argentina T hursday afternoon at the Plaza de Mayo, the Madres hold their weekly march, and several members attend to a stand around which a crowd gathers to buy products—ranging from books to key rings. On a sunny Sunday morning, tourists explore the street market of San Telmo, where an artist sells his photographs; one photograph portrays tango dancers, several others project the “memory theme” of the Madres’ marches. Monday night after a performance of the Teatro X la Identidad (a project developed by the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo), the public buys T-shirts outside of a downtown theater. On a windy Saturday afternoon, under the highway that replaced Club Atlético, a center for torture and extermination, dozens of people attend the inauguration of a new “espacio para la memoria,” and activists from h.i.j.o.s. (Hijos Por la Identidad y la Justicia Contra el Olvido y el Silencio) concurrently sell T-shirts and calendars . The list goes on. The above vignettes portray the city of Buenos Aires during the last months of 2007, the year that marked the thirtieth anniversary of the Madres and the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Three decades of persistent and courageous campaigns by activists, and a series of political measures taken by the Kirchner administration, have brought human rights and memory issues to the forefront of Argentina’s political agenda. A monument to the victims of state terrorism stands in the Parque de la Memoria. And society challenges the culture of impunity, both by prosecuting torturers and assassins and by recovering former torture chambers as spaces for memory 314 | susana kaiser (e.g., the infamous esma, planned to house cultural and educational institutes run by human rights organizations). The strong presence of this traumatic past in the public sphere, in an environment of trials and commemorations, creates a multilayered socio­ political space for the production, giving, selling, and consumption of memory products/artifacts. This chapter inventories these products—a broad category of memory-message carriers that includes books, dvds, videos, cd-roms, and appointment books, as well as souvenirs and memorabilia , such as T-shirts, key rings, calendars, mugs, posters, money clips, and magnets. It examines both the makers and the consumers of these objects, identifying who benefits, who buys, and what motivates the buying of these objects. Framing the Discussion This chapter focuses on the process by which these products come to embody the past; the messages transmitted through them; and the effects of Figure 1. Madres de Plaza de Mayo bookstand at their weekly Thursday marches, September 2007. (Photograph by Laurie Beth Clark and Michael Peterson) Memory Inventory | 315 buying, using, and collecting memory artifacts on both the construction and the transmission of memories. I argue that human rights organizations and institutions largely control the production of memory artifacts. While the marketing of memory messages may or may not include the exchange of money, identifying the makers and consumers of these memory carriers helps to explain the political economy of memory. The following questions guide my analysis: What do individuals, organizations, and institutions sell? What will they never sell? How do these memory products interlink with struggles for truth and justice? How do they contribute to maintaining the memories of state terrorism? Are memories of the dictatorship becoming a commodity? Should we categorize these items as memory prods or memory kitsch? To frame the discussion, I consider the historical/ mnemonic context; the marketing of memory; the consumption of the past; and the producers of memory goods. The Historical/Mnemonic Context As memories evolve over time, memory as an ongoing construction process must be analyzed within a specific historical, mnemonic, political, and cultural environment—in this case, the year 2007. During the last months of 2007 many debates, talks, conferences, and workshops centered on memories of the dictatorship. Discussions focused on this area revealed recurrent subjects: revolutionary activism, monuments, museums, and memory’s presence in film and the arts.1 Moreover, in 2007 the official memory discourse mirrored that of the Argentine human rights movement, characterized by strong alliances with, and official fiscal support from, federal and local government. This historical moment in Argentina confirms that there are waves of interest when remembering violent periods. The most important events in one’s memory occur...