Saturday in Santiago: Museo de la Memoria
I still blows me away that my husband was born under a dictatorship. It sounds so foreign, so other, so distant, and yet the truth is that it was right here, not very long ago at all. Rodolfo’s memories are of normal childhood things, but those experiences took place under a dictatorship.
The complexity of Chile’s past makes it a topic worth hours of discussion, but the extremely simplified version is that, from 1973 to 1990, Chileans lived under the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. During this time period, human rights atrocities were committed, and Chilean society, while no longer reeling, is still wobbling slightly from the effects. Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, bring visibility to those atrocities and their victims.
I finally found the time to visit during a friend’s brief trip to Santiago. He and I studied here together in 2005, and much of our weekend consisted of not only showing his girlfriend the city but also showing him everything that’s changed. It’s a lot, including the museum, which opened in 2010.
Photos aren’t allowed inside, which meant that I was free to observe. Museo de la Memoria takes you through the dictatorship both chronologically and thematically through different media – newspaper clippings, personal interviews with torture victims, documentary footage.
Some of the latter shocked me. I had heard the story of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Santiago. A sign at the sanctuary on top of Cerro San Cristóbal mentions the mass he gave there. But it’s one thing to know your history and another to see the pope tell thousands of people that love is greater, practically begging them to hear him, at the same time that the crowd is dissolving into police and protester violence.
Museo de la Memoria showed me other familiar stories in a new way. Reading the account of someone taken from his home in the dead of night to a concentration camp is sobering. Watching, however, as a man is escorted by police officers in broad daylight, surrounded by a crowd chanting “murderers! murderers!” is surreal. Surely they’re just taking him in for questioning, if this is all so public? The video continues to the next day, as his wife breaks down after having identified his body.
A visit to Museo de la Memoria isn’t exactly uplifting. Despite that, I think it’s a very interesting opportunity for tourists looking to understand the history of the place they’re visiting (get an audio guide or take a tour unless you speak Spanish). For those of us who live here, Chilean or foreign, it’s a chance not only to remember what we know and those who suffered but also to reconfirm a commitment to moving Chile forward.
More in this series:
Saturday in Santiago
I loved that museum. I think every country should have one. The botero show was there until June. Did u get a chance to see it?
I didn’t see the Botero show – only made it to Museo de la Memoria finally a couple of weeks ago. I will just have to go to the Botero museum in Bogota!
We went to this museum on our recent visit to Santiago and it was one of the highlights of our trip. We felt the same way: we couldn’t believe this happened in the not too distant past. The museum was poignant and surreal at same time.
I’m so glad you were able to visit! I do think this history is a very important part of Chile’s present, and this museum offers a good introduction to those topics.
Wow what a powerful place! That last pic is so amazing!!! I’m so glad that the country has changed for the better.
We’ve really been having some incredible sunsets. And “powerful” is the perfect word.
beautifull museum with a somber message
Very definitely yes.
I felt the same way travelling to parts of Eastern Europe last year, Budapest and Berlin in particular. I know it isn’t politically correct to call those areas “Eastern” anymore, but you can still notice the effects of a not so distant history. And visiting the museums and learning more – and thinking about how little people learn from the mistakes of the past, is sobering. I have always heard about the atrocities of the Pinochet regime but would be interested to learn more if we get to return to Santiago one day.
Rodolfo went to some Holocaust-related sites in and around Berlin, and just hearing his take on them was pretty heavy. I agree, it’s such a shame that there are people who don’t learn from the past.
I felt the same sobering feeling in many countries in Latin America when you realize they dealt with things you could never imagine happening other than in movies and books.
I’m sure there are places all over the world where I could feel that feeling, but luckily enough I haven’t experienced it in California.
We went to the Estonian Museum of Occupations Tallinn last year. Now here’s a country that was under a communist control, then taken under a Nazi regime for a few years, and then back to communism until 1991. I laugh when people say that Tallinn has become too touristy. With all this country has gone through in the past 100 years, people have the nerve to consider too many tourists aa a negative thing.
One of my best friends here is from Estonia, and she has some stories of Soviet life!
One of our friends we met in Peru grew up as a child during the Pinochet regime. Some of the stories were quite frightening. Despite the museum not being uplifting it is about educating and understanding what took place.
Rodolfo’s grandma talks about his uncles always making it back to the house juuuust in time for curfew and how worried she would be sitting there waiting and hoping they’d make it. The way she tells it, I can imagine her angst, and it is definitely frightening to think what could have happened.
Visiting these kinds of places is certainly not much fun, but then traveling is not about fun only- it’s about learning what countries and people have gone through to get to where they are.
I completely agree. That’s what makes one destination different from another.
I thinking visiting these sorts of places is a must — if you don’t have a feel for the history and the struggle a place like Chile has gone through, it’s hard to fully appreciate the country.
Definitely. I think you can of course be a tourist in Chile and get a lot out of it without knowing the history, but if you’re going to spend any time here, it’s really important to have an idea of the background.
It just occurred to me reading this that I know absolutely NOTHING about Chile’s actual history, so thanks for the lesson
Come here, and I shall load you up on pisco sours while my history major husband teaches you everything you need to know.
That IS sort of weird to think how you bonded so closely with someone with such a different … history? Sounds like a great museum — but you always seem to do such cool things on your weekends!
The funny thing is that Chile now is pretty much as modern as the US, but back when Rodolfo was growing up the difference was a lot greater. End result? He and my dad, who was born during WWII, have more shared childhood memories than he and I do!
I think this museum is so well done.
I did think of how much you’d said you liked it while I was there!