From Memorial Site To Text: Villa Grimaldi, El palacio de la risa, Villa and the Dynamics of Space

The former concentration camp Villa Grimaldi is one of dozens of memorial sites in Chile that stand as highly visible reminders of the brutal Pinochet years when kidnapping and torture were commonplace techniques that the state employed to intimidate the nation and subdue resistance. As one of Chile’s oldest memorial sites that recall the Pinochet era, the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi powerfully reminds visitors of the importance to preserve historical memory of an era fraught with terror and elemental struggle (Gómez-Barris 32). Perhaps more than almost any other memorial site in Chile today, with the possible exception of Santiago’s General Cemetery, Villa Grimaldi has captured the imagination of the general population, as Macarena Gómez-Barris has shown through her recent (and ongoing) work on “witness citizenship” (29). Villa Grimaldi has also provided subject matter to Chilean artists and writers, as well as to committed social and political activists, as one of the most emblematic of all Chilean historical memory sites that bear witness to how communities recall such atrocities in order to honor the victims and resist future instances of state-sanctioned violence. Two Chilean writers whose works focus on Villa Grimaldi are Germán Marín (El palacio de la risa, 1995) and Guillermo Calderón (Villa, 2012). Both authors explore the historical and psychological impact that this site has had on Chilean consciousness, though in different ways and through distinct genres.