Aesthetics of care and female voices of the Malvinas war in Las Aspirantes by Gretel Suárez (2018) and Nosotras también estuvimos by Federico Strifezzo (2021)

Abstract

The article explores the relationships between female voices, feminist memories, care work and aesthetic creations about the Malvinas War, which took place between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982. Starting from the notion of montage that Didi-Huberman (2015) borrows from Benjamin, and the aesthetics of care that Mihaela Mihai (2022) coins to think about the memories of political and state violence, the article analyzes, compares and contrasts Las Aspirantes by Gretel Suarez (2018) and Nosotras también estuvimos by Federico Strifezzo (2021), documentary films created in the vibrant context of popular feminisms during those years and the political valorization of women´s work and actions. It jointly explores images (created in the documentaries or from other archives), testimonies (collected with the camera or in personal or public interviews) together with judicial texts, with the intention of thinking about a more nuanced memory space of the women who participated in the South Atlantic conflict. The article elaborates on the emergence of both vulnerable, spectral memories, from the margins and far removed from any heroism, as well as memories of masculine women who act upon the desire of belonging to the military institution.