Battling for Hearts and Minds

Memory Struggles in Pinochet’s Chile, 1973–1988

Autor: Stern, Steve J.; Mignolo, Walter D.; Silverblatt, Irene; Saldívar-Hull, Sonia
Editor: Duke University Press
Col·lecció: Latin america otherwise
ISBN: 9780822338277
eISBN Pdf: 9780822388548
Lloc de publicació: Durham , United States
Any de publicació digital: 2006
Mes: Setembre
Pàgines: 576
DDC: 983.06/5
Idioma: Anglés

Descripció

Battling for Hearts and Minds is the story of the dramatic struggle to define collective memory in Chile during the violent, repressive dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, from the 1973 military coup in which he seized power through his defeat in a 1988 plebiscite. Steve J. Stern provides a riveting narration of Chile’s political history during this period. At the same time, he analyzes Chileans’ conflicting interpretations of events as they unfolded. Drawing on testimonios, archives, Truth Commission documents, radio addresses, memoirs, and written and oral histories, Stern identifies four distinct perspectives on life and events under the dictatorship. He describes how some Chileans viewed the regime as salvation from ruin by Leftists (the narrative favored by Pinochet’s junta), some as a wound repeatedly reopened by the state, others as an experience of persecution and awakening, and still others as a closed book, a past to be buried and forgotten.

In the 1970s, Chilean dissidents were lonely “voices in the wilderness” insisting that state terror and its victims be recognized and remembered. By the 1980s, the dissent had spread, catalyzing a mass movement of individuals who revived public dialogue by taking to the streets, creating alternative media, and demanding democracy and human rights. Despite long odds and discouraging defeats, people of conscience—victims of the dictatorship, priests, youth, women, workers, and others—overcame fear and succeeded in creating truthful public memories of state atrocities. Recounting both their efforts and those of the regime’s supporters to win the battle for Chileans’ hearts and minds, Stern shows how profoundly the struggle to create memories, to tell history, matters.

Battling for Hearts and Minds is the second volume in the trilogy The Memory Box of Pinochet’s Chile. The third book will examine Chileans’ efforts to achieve democracy while reckoning with Pinochet’s legacy.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Maps
Introduction to the Trilogy: The Memory Boxof Pinochet’s Chile
Introduction to Book Two: Battling for Hearts and Minds
Part I Foundational Years: Building the Memory Box, 1973–1982
- Chapter 1: Chronicling a Coup Foretold? Previews of the Impossible
  - Afterword ‘‘This Is Chile’’
- Chapter 2 Saving ‘‘Chileans of Well-Placed Heart,’’ 1973–1976
  - Afterword Rumors of the Impossible
- Chapter 3 Witnessing and Awakening Chile: Testimonial Truth and Struggle, 1973–1977
  - Afterword Laughing and Singing in Times of Trouble
- Chapter 4 Road to Oblivion? Crisis and Institutionalization,1977–1982
  - Afterword Coming of Age
- Chapter 5 Digging In: Counteroffcial Chile, 1979–1982
  - Afterword Fending off Despair
- Conclusion to Part I: Building the Memory Box: Foundational Years
Part II Struggles for Control: Memory Politics as Mass Experience, 1983–1988
- Chapter 6 Great Shakings: Memory War in the Streets, 1983–1986
  - Afterword Away from Santiago
- Chapter 7 Time Travel: Memory War in Media and Politics, 1983–1986
  - Afterword Desire
- Chapter 8 ‘‘Did You Forget Me?’’ The Unexpected Faces of Chile,1987–1988
  - Afterword Taboo: The Making of a Memory Moment
- Conclusion to Part II: Memory as Mass Experience: Strugglesfor Control
Abbreviations Used in Notes and Essay on Sources
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index