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Memory and Method in the Emerging Historiography of Latin America's Authoritarian Era
- Latin American Politics & Society
- University of Miami
- Volume 48, Number 3, Fall 2006
- pp. 185-198
- 10.1353/lap.2006.0038
- Review
- Additional Information
Latin American Politics & Society 48.3 (2006) 185-198
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Memory and Method in the Emerging Historiography of Latin America's Authoritarian Era
Kenneth P. Serbin
How are we to remember the era of authoritarianism that took hold in Latin America, beginning with Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship in Paraguay in 1954 and ending with Augusto Pinochet's exit from power in Chile in 1990? How should historians write about this period? Memory and historical events are interlocking yet distinct phenomena. Perceptions of the past shift constantly, but not the past itself. The job of the historian is to plumb the past ever more effectively in order to inform memory accurately. This process is ongoing and imperfect; but it is a crucial element in the construction of social memory because it helps to correct misperceptions and to build new layers of understanding.
This essay is a call to action for historians. I am concerned that the recent history of authoritarianism in Latin America, and in Brazil specifically, will be left largely unexplored by members of our profession and therefore left unquestioned, or at best explored in too narrow a manner. Study of the Latin American authoritarian period has been almost exclusively the domain of social scientists, particularly political scientists. (Concern about lack of historian involvement is also expressed in Stern 2001). But the passage of time has clearly made it "history." Historians Thomas Skidmore (1967) and Robert Levine (1970) wrote their initial books about the era of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil less than two decades after his death. Sixteen years have passed since Pinochet's departure, two decades since the end of the Brazilian military regime, three decades from the height of the repression in Brazil and Argentina, and four decades from the Brazilian coup of 1964, which inaugurated bureaucratic authoritarianism in South America. In recent years, many scholars from the social sciences and anthropology have demonstrated renewed interest in the period; they are beating historians to the punch.
The Cultivation of Memory
Trends in history and social science suggest that traditional historical methodologies will receive little attention in the process of understanding the period. Instead of the old paradigms of dependency and Cold War polarization (Fagen 1995), gender studies, race and ethnicity, and the "new cultural history" have become the new canon of the historical profession, and will undoubtedly have a profound influence on the way Latin American authoritarianism is interpreted (see...
