The Battle for Memory in the 2019 Chilean Social Outburst: Infra-repression, transitional vacuum, and the Rearticulation of Counter-memories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v19n2p539-557Keywords:
Chile, Social Uprising, Hidden transcripts, Counter-memories, Soft Repression, Transitions to democracyAbstract
Taking the 2019 Chilean social outburst as a case study, this article examines struggles over memory in post-authoritarian Chile. It analyses how official memory constrains how the past can be articulated, shaping political subjectivities and discouraging engagement, while also exploring how demonstrators resist and rework counter-memories during the mobilization. The article is structured in two parts. The first, drawing on James Scott, conceptualises official memory as part of a transitional transcript that functions as a form of infra-repression by demobilising dissent. Building on scholarship that has highlighted the role of transitional memory projects in stabilizing post-authoritarian elites, this dynamic is examined in the Chilean transition, particularly through the Concertación’s mnemonic project and its role in containing dissent after the dictatorship. The second part presents an abductive thematic analysis of forty semi-structured interviews with uprising participants, revealing three main processes. First, prior to the uprising, participants’ socialization was marked by a “transitional vacuum” in which primary socialization spaces failed to provide opportunities to thematize the past, potentially discouraging engagement while also prompting the search for alternative memories. Second, during the mobilizations, police brutality fractured the transitional narrative and the uprising functioned as a social space where counter-memories were reworked through collective assemblies, conversations with families, and self-directed information practices. Finally, in the post-uprising period, public discourse shifted toward more conservative framings, a development that does not indicate hegemonic consensus but instead propels the retreat of counter-memories into hidden transcripts. By theorising memory as infra-repression and analysing the interaction between official and counter-memories at the micro-level, this article sheds light on how repression and resistance operate within societies shaped by authoritarian legacies. These findings underscore the importance of recognizing and studying hidden forms of resistance, particularly in contexts of rising authoritarianism and far-right threats.
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