The right of peoples to preserve their memory

“Memory is an acquisition of the modern world, like human rights –something of which we were unaware 40 years ago– the rights of women or sexual freedom and the rights of gay people. Ecology was another thing we knew nothing about. Memory is a concept that takes its roots from Nazism. Memory is not a fashion; it will stay with us forever. Peoples with no memory have no future. Chile has achieved democratic transition, it enjoys acceptable economic stability, institutions are beginning to re-establish themselves, but they continue to turn their backs on memory, as in Spain. How is possible that there are 90 year old women here that still claim for a grave for their beloved ones?

I will always love the collective joy lived with Allende, when the whole country took to the streets for the first time in their lives, when poor people invaded the centre of the city, celebrating with music and meetings, a success no-one had ever dreamt of. It was a state of collective falling in love, a legal movement, without weapons, crushed by an absolutely disproportionate Coup d’état. We were flattened by the power of an entire Army with the economic backing of North America, bringing an end to the longest democracy in Latin America”.

Patricio Guzmán

Film: Chile, la memoria obstinada, Chile, una galaxia de problemas