TO fifty years of the civil-military coup of 1976the memory is activated again not only from the history and the policybut also from the literature. memory matterthe book of thirteen unpublished stories compiled and prologued by Claudia Pineiroproposes a unique way of revisiting that past: not from the great speechesbut from minimal, intimate objectscapable of condensing what often cannot be said any other way.
Each of the summoned authors builds their story around a object: some sandals, a tricycle, a fragment of a bell. These elements function as memory anchors in stories crossed by state terrorismhe exile wave disappearance. “When there are so many open questions—for those who have missing relatives or who lived through the process—there are questions that have no answers, but it is that object that comes to tell you something,” Piñeiro explained. And he added: “Working through that object and what it meant to each one is very interesting.”
The author’s definitions arose within the framework of a radio interview in The Triggerby Delta 90.3where he reflected on the book and the place of memory half a century after the coup. There he also stressed the value of generational views: “I am very interested in the literature produced by the children of those who were protagonists of the 70s. They are children’s eyes seeing a circumstance of risk, of danger, but also a life where something was taken from their parents.”
At that intersection between experience and reconstruction one of the keys to the book appears. Many of the stories start from fragmentary memoriesincomplete, that were put together over time. “Sometimes memory is not based only on what we experienced, but also on what we were told. There are things that one repeats without knowing if we lived them or heard them,” said Piñeiro, highlighting the complexity of that process.
The writer also differentiated between individual memory and collective memoryand highlighted the fundamental role that the justice in Argentina to set a limit against reinterpretations: “We have a great advantage in putting together that memory, which is that there was a judgment where it was determined who the culprits are. That is res judicata. I don’t need to review anything because it already happened.” Along those lines, he defined “Trial of the Boards” as “exemplary”, as it is a process carried out by the civil justice.
However, far from proposing a closed memory, Piñeiro insisted that it is a construction in permanent movement: “It is put together with layers. Each one remembers something different and thus a collective memory is built, which is what must not be lost.” And he warned about the importance of keeping it active: “The ‘Anymore’ It will only be possible if we remember what happened and if we know how to detect beforehand the steps that can take us to that place.”
In that sense, the author also focused on the present and in the need for memory to continue being uncomfortable: “If the memory does not bother, it stops serving. When it becomes a ready-made phrase, it loses meaning.” That’s why, memory matter bet on the opposite: to recover what singularit intimatewhich disarms the common places.
The book also introduces a tone that dismantles expectations. “It is a very luminous book,” said Piñeiro. “Sometimes it is thought that everything that has to do with missing either exiles It’s going to be dark, and yes, what happened was hard, but in the memories of these writers I found something bright“That light does not deny the horror, but rather pierces it from the human experiencefrom which persists even in the most difficult contexts.
Half a century after the coup, “Memory matter” does not seek to close the past, but reopen it from new ways of narrating. In times where consensus on history are discussed again, literature appears as a space where memory can continue breathing. Not as a fixed story, but as a plot under constructionmade of objects, voices and questions that, perhaps, will never have a single answer.
by RN
