Over at Memory in Latin America, Lillie has been doing sterling work recently as she chronicles the efforts made by Latin American countries to come to terms with their difficult pasts. Recent posts have touched Argentina’s Dirty War and its Carapintada era that came mainly in the Alfonsin years, the Chile of Pinochet and the recent efforts to being justice to several people (both perps and victims), stories of admissions finally coming to light in places like Brazil (where the whole subject of dictator-era disappearances is very much taboo…people prefer to whistle, hum and pretend “it didn’t happen here”), Peru, Guatemala, Chile and plenty et ceteras.
Reading the blog regularly and as a whole, it becomes a witness to Latin America’s collective conscience and its struggle to come to terms (or try and avoid thinking about) what happened here not so very long ago, and “thanks” to people like the FARC and the ultra-right paras in Colombia is still happening. As such, ‘Memory’ is a valuable place to read and learn about this region. Those of us who would prefer to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past need to be educated first. Intelligent, didactic material abounds at Memory in Latin America, so make it part of your internetworld, too. I salute you, Lillie.