Place, youth and memory as resistance : An ethnographic case study of discussions about impunity at Londres 38,espacio de memorias

Sammanfattning: ” You don’t talk about politics or football around the dining table” is a Chilean expression that well describes how the dictatorship (1973–1990) is attached to the societal soul, with people’s diversifiedrelationships to its legacy. For the outside world, Chile is a thriving democracy that got out of Pinochet’s iron grip, but for many Chileans, the transition to democracy has excluded demands for justice and a real influence. How is it to be born into democracy and grow up in a society where the struggle for memory is a struggle for the future? Where you did not live the terrible years but live with its consequences? This study is interested in how the younger generation breaks a generational silence and actively participates in politicizing memory. With a political-ethnographic approach and a customized discourse analytical tool, these processes are captured through an extensive case study of the memory site Londres 38, espacio de memorias. In conversations about impunity with the memory site’s young representatives and the school and university class’s diversified reflections on the subject during participating visits, present research shows how the place becomes a democratic deliberative platform, in contrast to prevailing power relations, giving voice and perspective to a new generation.