Diasporic Chilean and Argentinian narratives in the UK: The traces of second generation postmemory ALEJANDRA SERPENTE University College London PhD 2013 Declaration of originality. I, Alejandra Serpente confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signed: Alejandra Serpente Date: 2 Abstract This thesis analyses the interrelated concepts of diasporic postmemory and how they apply to the oral narratives of a small group of second generation Chileans and Argentineans living in the UK, whose parents were political exiles and economic migrants linked to the Chilean (1973-1990), and Argentinean (1976-1983) dictatorships. Diasporic postmemory as a ‘multidirectional’ theory is used to discuss these narratives in a ‘delocalised’ context where it is argued that two central memory fields overlap: the first being the field of the ‘politics of memory’ in the Southern Cone, and the second the ‘diaspora field’. It will be argued that these narratives occupy a mobile and situated diasporic ‘in-between’ space, indicative of ‘translocational positionalities’ that shift between a UK context and abroad. By presenting these postmemory narratives together, we can come to explore how the legacies of the dictatorships in Chile and Argentina continue to have resonances beyond the stable boundaries of the field of the politics of memory in those countries. As such, they hold the possibility to move beyond the direct victims of state terrorism and their kin, encompassing a wider ‘affective community’ of diasporic positionalities and subjectivities tied to wider societal responses to the legacy of state terrorism and trauma. Furthermore, I will also discuss how in this diaspora space, the positionalities of the researcher and interviewees are intertwined, and form part of subjectivities that can become ethical and reflexive subjects of postmemory, in mutually articulating alternative possibilities for more diversified and collective forms of multidirectional memories to emerge. 3 For Stephen 4 Acknowledgements It would not have been possible to write this doctoral thesis without the help and support of all the people below, who I would like to recognise and acknowledge here. I begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Maxine Molyneux who has been truly incredible with her patience, motivation, guidance and belief in me, in all stages of my PhD study and research. Her trust in my abilities has been a vital process in my growth as a researcher and I thank her for all her dedication in making sure I succeeded in the end. To Par Engstrom my second supervisor, I thank him for all his advice and corrections over the last three years. He has provided invaluable support at key stages in the development of this thesis for which I am very grateful. In the course of beginning this project, I have had the privilege to share my ideas and my thoughts with my fellow PhD students at the Institute for the Study of the Americas and UCL Americas, none more so than with Carmen Gloria Sepulveda Zelaya, my Chilean colleague and friend. I am indebted to her for pushing me in the right direction, and always providing the best advice possible in difficult times. I am also grateful to the following ex-students for their support and friendships: Bill Booth, Olivia Saunders, Shirley Pemberton, Dylan Vernon, and Juan Ignacio Venegas, they were all part of the process at some stage or another so thanks to them all. A massive thank you also goes to Dr. Cara Levey and Dr. Francesca Lessa who have both supported me along the way, and shared some fun moments. To Francesca, I thank her for accepting me on my first ever conference panel and for giving me the space to publish my work. To Cara, I can’t thank her enough for everything. I am really excited about the possibility of collaborating together with both of them in the future. 5 Thank you to Professor Guillermo Mira Delli-Zoti from the University of Salamanca, for understanding what it’s like to be a fish out of water, and for being so passionate about my work and ideas. Thank you to Dr. Cecilia Sosa for her support in the middle of the thesis, and for sharing the experiences of organising a conference and publishing together. Thank you to Dr. Paulo Drinot for his advice and help along the way, especially with the process of publishing. Much appreciation goes to Julio Cazzasa from Senate House Library for his support since the beginning of all of this, and Alegria Perez for her advice in times of need. Asides from the academic world, I would like to thank all of the people who work with me in my other life, whose support has also been incredibly important throughout the last seven years in sustaining the momentum for this thesis. A big thank you goes to all my fellow coaches and staff at Highgate Newtown Gymnastics Club, Nyamaa Nyamlkhagva, Louise Barnes, and our ex-caretaker Tom Gannon. Equally, to the people at Central YMCA, I would like to thank Danny Potts, and Laura Walsh, for being so patient with me, and allowing me to balance my work with my studies. Massive thanks also go to Laura Morris and to Shelley Garnham for their friendship and sharing the process of teaching and studying. Here I would like to especially thank Fay Matthews for always telepathically being on the same page and everything she does in the gym and out, without being asked to do it. I also thank Victoria Brown for helping me to overcome some of the difficult mental hurdles whilst training for my half-marathons which included carrying out this thesis, thanks to her for her patience, understanding, and dedication. To all my friends who have also supported me in some way or another all this time. To Kelly Hughes for her friendship that has lasted since the St Mary’s days and her enormous understating in all my hours of need, both then and now. To Ben and Liz Alway I would like to thank them for their roast dinners, their hospitality and walks along the beach, I owe them loads. 6 I thank all of my family abroad, all of the Serpente and Sgró clan back in Buenos Aires, especially to those that have set an example to me from far away. From Argentina, thank you to Eduardo Howard for given us the novel Una Vez Argentina on which this thesis was based. Thanks also go to the Lowe and Towse families for their love and support. Jane and Hannah especially, who have never judged and have always. To my mother, Patricia Serpente, I thank her for her constant care and encouragement in always putting me back on track, for always believing in me, and for helping me with the references in this thesis. I want to thank my father, Norberto Serpente, the constant traveller and trailblazer. If it wasn’t for his decision with my mother to make a different life for his family all those years ago and break out of the mould, I would not have been able to do any of this. I am very proud of everything he has achieved, and of all the efforts and sacrifices along the way (Buenos Aires, Paris, London, Tartu, Berlin, as well as, Potters Bar, Hendon, Hemel Hampstead, Hendon, and now South Essex). I can’t thank him enough for just about everything. To Ed Lowe (and to D and G), I truly cannot be thankful enough for all his patience and dedication over the last 13 years in helping me to stay positive about the things that I do. So thank you for everything as always. My last acknowledgement goes to all the Chilean political exiles who I have met along the way here in the UK and in the U.S., who have inspired my decision to tell their stories from the point of view of their children. And in extension, the biggest thank you of all goes to all of my second generation Chilean and Argentinean interviewees who took part in this thesis, for giving me a window into their lives and for allowing me to write about their experiences from the space of the diaspora. 7 Table of contents Declaration of originality 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 5 Table of contents 8 Preface 14 Introduction 22 The emergence of the field of the politics of memory in Argentina 29 and Chile The Chilean field 37 New linkages and affiliations 43 Postmemory: Looking out towards the borders 46 The diaspora space: Bridging the two fields in a new global context 50 The contribution and situatedness of this thesis on connecting the 51 two fields Outline of chapters 53 Chapter 1: The space in-between of diasporic postmemory 57 Introduction 57 Theorising diaspora 58 The diaspora space 61 New positionalities in a British diaspora space 63 8 Hybrid identities 67 Diaspora and hybridity 71 Memory studies and the legacy of the Holocaust 72 Spectacular trauma and the guardianship of the Holocaust in 75 memory studies Postmemory and the intergenerational transfer of traumatic memory 80 The postgeneration 89 Living connections from the space of disconnection 92 Postmemory in a new terrain: The second generation in Argentina 94 and Chile The extension of kinship ties: The children of the detained- 95 disappeared as other voices of postmemory Conclusion: The hybrid ‘grey-zones’ of diasporic postmemory 102 Chapter 2: A methodology of memory 110 Introduction 110 Narrating postmemory 111 Research background and preparation 114 Table 1 115 The interview questions and key themes of postmemory 118 The question of language 121 The second generation 123 Intersectionality of individual narratives versus ‘community’ 127 A first generation gendered experience of exile and some research 130 challenges 9 Political