Road Trip Through History: Museum of Memory and Human Rights
The Bombing of La Moneda (the Chilean equivalent of the White House) on September 11, 1973, by the Junta's Armed Forces.
My Own True Love and I went to Chile over the holidays for a family wedding and a spot of adventure. We set off knowing where we needed to be when and no idea about the details. We discovered strawberry juice, pisco sours, enormous holes in our knowledge of Chilean history, and the amazing kindness of strangers. We spent two nights in a cabin that looked like a hobbit hole, walked in the foothills of the Andes, and stayed up much later than we are used to.
Along the way we visited a truly powerful museum: the Museo de la Memoria et los Derechos Humanos (The Museum of Memory and Human Rights).
The museum documents the events of the military coup of September 11, 1973,* the subsequent abuses of the Pinochet years, the courage of those who stood against the regime, and the election in which Chile voted Pinochet out of power in 1988.** The exhibits are an assault on the senses, using contemporary film clips, music, photographs, and recordings. Photographs of the regime's victims "float" against a glass wall that is two-stories high. Interviews with survivors of the coup were fascinating; interviews with survivors of the government's human rights abuses were almost unbearable. A recording of President Allende's final speech, broadcast under siege from the presidential palace shortly before his death, was awe-inspiring. In short, the museum shows humanity at its best and its worst.
In many ways, the Museo de la Memoria resembles Holocaust museums we've visited, not only in its insistence on memory and celebration of survival, but in its message of "never again". A quotation from former Chilean president (and now president elect) Michelle Bachelet Jeria is engraved at the entrance that sums up the museum's purpose: "We are not able to change our past. The only thing that remains to us to learn from the experience. It is our responsibility and our challenge." Statements about and explanations of the universal declaration of human rights, passed by the United Nations in 1948, are interwoven throughout the historical exhibits.
I cannot say we had a fun morning. My Own True Love and I left the museum drained. We also were very pleased we made the effort. If you are lucky enough to have the chance to visit Chile, make the time to visit. If you don't see Chile in your future but would like to know more about Chile under the Pinochet regime, these two books come highly recommended: Andy Beckett's Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile's Hidden History and Hugh O'Shaughnessy's Pinochet: The Politics of Torture. I haven't read either of them yet, but I'm putting them on my need-to-read list.
*The United States is not the only country to remember 9/11 with sadness.
**I don't know of any other instance in which a dictatorship allowed itself to be voted out of power. Do you?
Photograph courtesy of the Library of the Chilean National Congress
Boundaries
WARNING: THIS POST IS MORE ABOUT MY THOUGHT PROCESS THAN ABOUT HISTORY QUA HISTORY. FEEL FREE TO ABANDON SHIP IF THIS IS NOT YOUR THING.*
A couple of weeks ago, one of my favorite bloggers in the writing/publishing/creativity world, Dan Blank, wrote a post about choosing a single word to explore over the course of the year. I've read about this idea before--several times. I've always thought "interesting" and moved on without a pause. This time a word popped into my mind: boundaries.
It's a word that has a lot of personal resonance for me, but that's of no interest to you all, except to the extent that my success at defending my time to write, read, think and take road trips with My Own True Love keeps me primed to write blog posts. No mental fuel, no History in the Margins.
But the idea of boundaries is important to me in another way: it's one of the concepts that holds my eclectic and hopefully electric vision together. I'm fascinated by the times and places where boundaries (literal and metaphorical) blur and the people who kick them down. I like to watch the way they move over time.** I'm interested in the expansion and dismantling of empires. I'm fascinated by frontiers and people who boldly go--where ever.
Over the course of 2014, I plan to think about boundaries: personal, historical, cultural, social. I suspect a lot of that thinking will show up here.
What about you?
◆ Is there a word that sums up (in part or in whole) your ideas about history?
◆ What are your thoughts about boundaries?
◆ Is there a word you plan to think about in 2014?
Onward!
* I hear the grumbles. First a holiday break, now a little musing. Don't worry I've got some hard core history lined up for the next post.
** Have I mentioned how much I like maps?
Taking a Holiday
For the first time since I started History in the Margins, I'm going to take a planned break from blogging.* Unless I stumble across something that I feel I absolutely need to tell you RIGHT NOW, I'll be back on January 3.
In the meantime, have a merry/jolly/happy/blessed time as you celebrate the victory of light over the darkness in the tradition of your choice.
*Which is not to say that there haven't been some unplanned gaps.