Resilient Memories: Amer-indian Cognitive Schemas in Latin American Art by Arij Ouweneel (review)

In Resilient Memories: Amerindian Cognitive Schemas in Latin American Art, Arij Ouweneel uses a wide range of theories that emerged from cognitive sciences to explore the ways in which Amerindian transnational mnemonic communities, which are triggered by cognitive schemas, manifest their colonial past and pre-Hispanic epistemologies in a varied series of artworks such as paintings and films. He contends that the works of art that constitute the main corpus of his book are in fact the agents of Amerindian cognitive schemas, which entail the unconscious memories of a transnational Amerindian mnemonic community, or as he puts it, the “Amerindian Unconscious.”

Figure 1.

Colonialidad. Jorge Miyagui Oshiro, 2014. Oil on canvas, 1.50 m. x 1.20 m. Courtesy: the artist.

In chapter 1, Ouweneel focuses on interpreting Jorge Miyagui Oshiro’s canvas painting Colonialidad (2014). According to Miyagui, the title of his work refers to Aníbal Quijano’s coloniality of power, a constitutive element of capitalism that originated in the racialized domination and exploitation unleashed by the European colonization of the Americas. Also termed “internal colonialism,” coloniality implicates structures of power and hegemony—legacies of European colonialism—that currently underlie racial relations of power that rule every aspect of life and knowledge formation. Considering the many readings of coloniality, Ouweneel proposes the theoretical framework of cognitive science to better understand Miyagui’s Colonialidad and collective (cultural) memory studies, in general. The Cognitive Unconscious and mnemonic communities, among other concepts, serve the author to trace the workings of Amerindian cognitive schemas in Miyagui’s work. Ouweneel views Miyagui as a member of a community that shares a past of colonization and violence. Miyagui’s art depicts the racism and violence against Andeans during Peru’s Internal Armed Conflict (1980–1992 [–2000]) and serves as “an instrument of political education” (59) that appeals to an Andean Amerindian mnemonic community and calls for action.

In chapter 2, Ouweneel explores the short film Ángeles caídos (2005) through the lens of cultural memory studies. He argues that ancient Indigenous world-views and epistemologies—also called schemas—are at the base of the resolution the film proposes to gang violence and alcoholism. For the author, Ángeles caídos works upon ancient cultural schemas by representing the main plaza of Cajamarquilla Paraíso as a center of community bonding and renewal where customs, narratives, and political agencies have been shared and passed down since pre-Hispanic times. Ouweneel argues that the functions of plazas did not come exclusively from Europe but are autochthonous to Amerindian civilizations. The film employs ancient Andean spatial and temporal mechanisms such as hanan and hurin—an oppositional pair that juxtaposes Upper and Lower Worlds—and pachacuti—cataclysms or turning of the times—both of which allow us to understand Cajamarquilla’s plaza as a place where violence is resolved. The film advocates for the reintegration of gang members—who live on the periphery of the city, or hurin—into the plaza, or hanan, where they can heal through participation in activities of social rehabilitation.

Ouweneel analyzes, through cognitive and psychological approaches, Josué Méndez’s feature film Días de Santiago (2004) in chapter 3. The film portrays war veteran Santiago Román’s struggles to become a civilian after participating in Peru’s Internal Armed Conflict and the Cenepa War (1995). Ouweneel delves into Román’s cognitive schema through cognitive science that focuses on conscious and unconscious processes of the brain. Ouweneel explains that the concept of Cognitive Unconscious can be understood if one imagines consciousness to be an actor or actors who occupy the spotlight in the “theater of the mind,” while the unconsciousremains fully in charge of the entire show. For the author, the unconscious is surrounded by a highly interactive audience that communicates with it via networks of long-term memory. The audience—or the Cognitive Unconscious— then arouses and influences the actions of the...