sobre héroes y tumbas the park and political logics of memory in argentina daniel james for the degree of doctor of philosophy in sociology at the london school of economics 101,571 words 1 declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. I consider the work submitted to be a complete thesis fit for examination. I authorise that, if a degree is awarded, an electronic copy of my thesis will be deposited in LSE Theses Online (in accordance with the published deposit agreement) held by the British Library of Political and Economic Science and that, except as provided for in regulation 41, it will be made available for public reference. I authorise the School to supply a copy of the abstract of my thesis for inclusion in any published list of theses offered for higher degrees in British universities or in any supplement thereto, or for consultation in any central file of abstracts of such theses. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. In accordance with the Regulations, I have deposited an electronic copy of it in LSE Theses Online held by the British Library of Political and Economic Science and have granted permission for my thesis to be made available for public reference. Otherwise, this thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. 2 abstract The memory of the disappeared in Argentina is heavily and historically regulated and framed. We can use landscapes of memory as a prism to reconstruct the wider constitutive field of memory through which the reality of the past has been framed. By reconstructing this field, we can trace the discourses and logics of memory according to which meaning has come to be attributed to the past and a project for a future politics has been delineated. A study of the Parque de la Memoria reveals that Argentine collective memory has a cultural biography in which it tends towards two politics logics of memory which shape – and are shaped by – the concrete interventions over time and space of human rights actors and the understanding of the past among the wider interpellated Argentine public who situate within it in an expanded field. As a politics shaped by memory and mourning, the politics of transition in Argentina is revealed to be paradoxically emptied out of politics. Whether human rights groups choose to remember the desparecidos as innocent victims or 30,000 revolutionaries, so as to advance a social grieving or a politics of grievance, there is a lacuna at the heart of the memory of the disappeared as to who the disappeared really were. Though we find images and narrative discourses of quotidian humanity and political activism, we do not find the two together. The political logics of memory that have regulated the memory of the disappeared do not correspond to the reason of human rights groups, however, but that of society. The ontological subjects of the disappeared have been socially constructed in and through this memory as subjects that this society was willing to recognise and remember, with lasting implications for Argentine society and politics that continue to this day. 3 acknowledgements I am grateful to many people for their encouragement and support during the writing of this thesis. Firstly, I should like to thank Professors Chetan Bhatt, Bridget Hutter and Mike Savage. When British universities have completed their neoliberal sweep and turn to look back at what they are missing, the answer will be academics like these. There is no substitute for knowledge amidst all the research framework exercises and management-speak and no greater privilege than studying under the tutelage of those who are generous with theirs in support of an extended piece of research. Professor Bhatt said he would be ‘very delighted’ to take on my supervision. I am very delighted that he did. It was a privilege to study under his guidance. I was fortunate to study as a member of a close-knit group of researchers at the LSE. Peter Manning, Paz Concha, Sian Lewin, Haneen Naamneh, Ed Pertwee, Katherina Hecht, Anna Matczak, Nicolás Silva Valenzuela and Sara Bradshaw were a pleasure to work alongside and a valuable help when things started to go wrong. Zoe Gillard, Sara Ulfsparre and Heidi El-Megrisi in the Centre for the Study of Human Rights were always considerate with their time. Every department should have its Hilary Stauffer or Imara Ajani Rolston, whose enthusiasm is outrageous and important. When my own enthusiasm threatened to get the better of me several people pointed me in the right direction. I would like to thank Professors Tony Walter, David Matless and Leonor Arfuch in Bath, Nottingham and Buenos Aires respectively, and Dr. Silke Arnold-de Simini at Birkbeck, for making the time to meet with me to discuss my ideas. This research was funded in large part through a generous grant from the Economic and Social Research Council. I am very grateful to the ESRC for their support. I am grateful to Dr. Claire Moon for her help, particularly with the application for this funding. I am also thankful to my family and friends for their encouragement. I could not have hoped to meet more inspirational people during the writing of the thesis than Graciela, Mirta, Vera, Taty, Nora, Mercedes, Marcelo, Claudio, Ceferino, Gabriela, Rubén, Bob, Andrew and all those I spoke to during my time in Argentina. I am indebted to them for sharing their experiences and their ideas with me. I don’t think they will agree with my findings. But that is part of what makes Argentina so very special. Finally, I should like to thank Ayşe Metin. It is because of Ayşe that it was completed at all. I dedicate it to her. 4 Was ever an immolation so belied As these intolerably nameless names? Siegfried Sassoon Por respeto a los desaparecidos, busco siempre y busqué siempre mientras estuve en la Asamblea y en la CONADEP, el nombre, el apellido, datos; el máximo de identidad posible para encarnar a cada uno. Todo lo que sean números englobantes demuestra la poca importancia que se les daba a las vidas, no importa quien se los haga. Graciela Fernández Meijide 5 table of contents title page …………………………………………………………………..……………………………………….………………….. 1 declaration …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…. 4 epigraph …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 table of contents …..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 list of figures …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7 I. the emptying out of the park an introduction ……….………………………………………………………………………………………….…….………….. 10 II. spaces of memory, spaces for memory a literature review …………………………….……………………….………………………………..…….………………… 27 III. reconstructing the field to trace the discourses and logics of memory a cultural biography ………………………….………..………………..……………………….………………………..…… 46 IV. the field, frames and political logics of memory a theoretical framework ………………………………………………………………..…………………………………….. 65 V. whose park for whose memory? entering the field …………………………………………………………………………..……………………………..……… 84 VI. los desaparecidos as (un)grievable lives a cultural biography of the representation of the disappeared …………………………………………… 105 VII. el parque de la memoria in an expanded field the representation of the disappeared in the Park of Memory ………………….…..……………………. 133 VIII. bearing witness, proving fact, unmourning the undead a discourse analysis of relatives’ testimony ……………………………………..…………………………………. 157 IX. el parque de la memoria as a symbolic cemetery of the innocents embodied practices of memory and mourning in the Memory Park ………….…………………….... 180 X. the emptying out of the desaparecido a conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… 209 XI. annex ……………………..……….…………………………..……………………..……………………….…………………………..….. 231 XII. bibliography ……………………..……….…………………………..……………………..……………………….………………..…………….. 240 6 list of figures Figure 1 Figure 1: Obama and Macri with Marcelo Brodsky in the Parque de la Memoria. Image courtesy of Televisión Noticias, used without permission. Figure 2 Figure 2: The Memory Park is host in January 2014 to a demonstration over the pay and conditions of its staff. Photo courtesy of Infojusnotícias, used without permission. Figure 3 Figure 3. Argentina. The white box shows the location of its capital city, Buenos Aires (see figure 4). Image courtesy of Google Maps. Figure 4 Figure 4. Buenos Aires. The white box denotes the location of the Memory Park (see figure 5). Image courtesy of Google Maps. Figure 5 Figure 5. The Parque de la Memoria (headed “Memoria Park”) is clearly visible to the north-east of Buenos Aires (as shown by the red arrow and white box). The site marked “Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos” in the north-west is the former clandestine detention centre, ESMA, now a Space of Memory and Human Rights. The Estadio Monumental is home to football team, River Plate. It also hosted the final of the 1978 World Cup. The airfield to the south-east is the Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery. Some of the ‘death flights’ took off from here during the dictatorship in which desaparecidos were thrown into the river. Image courtesy of Google Maps. Figure 6 Figure 6: the Kirchners in the Parque. Néstor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner are shown around the Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism during its inauguration in 2007. Photo courtesy of the Parque de la Memoria, used without permission. Figure 7 Figure 7: A memorial in Rosario to gay and lesbian people disappeared during the dictatorship. At the bottom can be seen the beginning of a row of railway lines. Photo courtesy of the author. Figure 8 Figure 8: A copy of the advertisement taken out by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and other human rights groups in La Prensa newspaper on 28 August 1977.