Battling for Hearts and minds ; Memory Struggles in Pinochet’s Chile, 1973–1988

Description

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