Between objects, archives and activisms: memories and narratives of entrepreneurs in veterans associations and museums (Florencio Varela and Quilmes, Argentina)

Abstract

Memory entrepreneurs have the capacity to reactivate and produce social meanings: to participate in the symbolic and material struggle for meanings, through organization, collective repertoires and the establishment of an agenda, in the case discussed here, the Malvinas. Since 2012, at UNAJ, we have been working with veterans centers and the museums recently created by these associations. Based on these exchanges, we analyze different actions, which from an academic perspective we can call “activisms,” “rituals” or “performances” but which from the perspective of the actors, have local or “native” definitions: acts, talks, vigils, tributes. Some of these activities are carried out by veterans centers and museums; others, by UNAJ or are co-organized by both institutions, generally aimed at the local community and schools in the municipalities. These productions reveal tensions in the constitution of social memory and oscillate between two antagonistic poles: that of the patriotic feat, which seeks the continuity of the national or military history, and that of the absurd war, which attempted to perpetuate the civil-military dictatorship. These are the logics that we analyze in the activities and projects that we present in this article. First, we present actions and projects of the UNAJ and, second, interventions and installations of veterans' museums. This contrast allows us to contextualize and reflect on the absence of an official history, the presence of narrative logics (historical and socio-community), the heterogeneity or homogenization of social meanings, the recurrence of narratives and protocol traditions (which repeat nineteenth-century formulas and genres) and emerging processes and meanings, typical of the current context (recently past the 40th anniversary of the War and the recovery of democracy).