Inhabiting pain, transiting memory. Resistances and overlapping violences from the case of the former Fort El Morro in Talcahuano

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of memorialization of the Historical Monument and Memory Site of the former Fort El Morro de Talcahuano, located in the Biobío Region, Chile, with the particularity of its condition of being a space where multiple historical layers converge and intertwine. Through an analysis of primary sources, product of the interviews conducted during this research, we will explore how the practices –both memorial and management—developed by survivors, relatives of victims and human rights organizations, especially the Corporación Mutualista Bautista van Schouwen Vasey, produce contested meanings in the face of attempts at symbolic and institutional oblivion or resignification. It is concluded that the analysis of the practices of memorialization and special resignification of the former Fort El Morro carried out by the Mutual allows us to understand how, in the face of past and present violence, forms of resistance emerge that recover the integrity of the social body through the collective production of meaning.