Technorati Tags: history, landmark tripartite
Last days Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 October I attended the 2006 Latin American Bicentennial Forum, entitled "The construction of national memories: Myths, taboos and silences of history. " It was divided into three panels, but I'll just purely arbitrary refer to the first one, called "Politics of Memory: official history and social memory. Memory Wars and construction of identities ", which exposed Aljovín Christopher (Peru), Gustavo Rodriguez (Bolivia), Juan Emilio Cheyre (Chile) and Marc Ferro (France).
believe that this panel was crossed by three major themes: resentment , a concept developed especially Ferro internal inquiry carried out by the countries after the wars, and the complexity of the story, which is usually reduced or ignored.
Ferro said that the resentment is "like an explosive erupts from time to time "in which past events occur that are painful. If these facts were repressed resentment brings to this and may be more determining that this same context. In addition, it involves the humiliation of the resentful, which generates helplessness and a desire for revenge, but it can only be recognized if the rival counterpart. However, the positive consequences may be resentment, because it forces an internal inquiry that could lead to the restructuring of society.
The case of Peru, described by Aljovín, reflects the concept of resentment. The country has four milestones: a glorious past represented by the Inca empire, the end of that period with the conquest by the English, the process of independence and the Pacific War. Is this latest milestone which marked the formation of Peruvian identity, humiliated by Chile, which may not been recognized in Peru to a rival. This has encouraged a simplistic historical narrative, which have silenced some passages of history. It has attempted to take this complexity in textbooks, but Aljovín notes that this has resulted in the elaboration of less historical narrative ... has not taken the complexity of the facts.
I found particularly relevant the call made by Aljovín care about has been done in the Pacific War, the common denominator between Peru and Chile, although there are other important milestones, such as processes of independence in Latin America or of dictatorship and exile. And, as pointed out by this display, Bernardo O'Higgins played a role in the formation of the Peruvian State, and both countries have been exiled in different times.
Rodriguez also confirms, in a way, the concept of resentment. Bolivia noted that in the Pacific war had not national borders, but rather was a struggle between the Bolivian elite and foreign capital. At the end of belligerency this ruling elite, seeing reduced its territory, had to take over a country that had not been considered before. Thus, we generated a negative myth about Bolivia, founded in population and geographical composition. It was not until around 1918 that gave birth to a nationalist ideology that sees development as the only way to recover the territories annexed by Chile. In this case, the resentment has prevented Bolivia reconstruct internal and external fronts, resulting in his well known political and social instability.
On the other hand, Rodriguez called to take the complexity of history, but in a national attempt a story shared by Peru, Bolivia and Chile reproduce a scenario of divergence, and thus prefers a responsible job within each country, so they provide a complex narrative without incorporating this complexity in a single story. Cheyre
notes the paradox that is the fact that until now these three countries, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, are integrated from a chapter divider: the Pacific war. But having achieved great successes, does not exempt a rebuilding process, do not forget that the independence of Chile had not passed securely, and a few years after the war there was a new revolution. Cheyre rescues the ability of the internal restructuring that took the country, which may allow the persistence of institutions rooted in the twentieth century, but has not been the same on the external front, to which should be avoided resentment of moving away from simple integration harmony between nations. Considered as necessary the redefinition of symbols and the projection of history towards the future, ie to establish trusts from an integrated reconstruction of collective memory that enable social cohesion among these countries.
do not think this panel is going to change permanently the relationship between these countries, but it was very interesting and motivating to know these views. First, because it accounts for the approaches that arise from shared chapters of history. And is that identity that has made each country is not an abstract concept of interest only to researchers. Enough to read the letters pages in major Chilean newspapers to see what is discussed, or what the public opinion trends.
Second, as a history buff, I really liked the presentation of Ferro, where the historical narrative has many elements of social psychology. That is, it is not producing bulky manuals in which things have happened long ago, we are faced with the interpretation of social actors whose actions in the past have been screened to date, of course without taking the complexity of this . That is, the present projection of what will be the history of the future is to consider the facts beyond chronology.
But the speakers do not agree about how history is written. Do all together or each with responsibility? From the above, I believe it is essential to eliminate the notion of historical narration misrepresentation and omission of some passages. In the case of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, the three American speakers are interested in recognizing chapters of the relationship between these countries that are not necessarily factors of disunity. From this basis we simplify the intersection of our identities by the Pacific war and maybe we meet with many more milestones tripartite.
For anyone interested in the contents of this forum, some of the papers will be published on the site of the Bicentennial Committee .
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