Document 32-1: Museo de la Memoria, Córdoba, Argentina (ca. 2000)
Remembering Argentina’s “Dirty War”
Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina’s military junta waged a “Dirty War” against its political opponents, killing between 14,000 and 30,000 Argentines and imprisoning and torturing many thousands more. The Museo de la Memoria in Córdoba, Argentina, commemorates the victims of this dark period. As the museum’s name suggests, its primary purpose is to counter the efforts of the junta to erase its victims from history by preserving their memory. The museum is housed in a building that was a center for the activities of a special division of the junta’s Department of Intelligence. The division specialized in the kidnapping and torture of the regime’s opponents and the “reassignment” of their children to families of regime supporters.
READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What purposes do museums such as this one serve? Why is it important to preserve historical memory, particularly of tragic events?
- In your opinion, what made the Dirty War possible? What group or groups should be held responsible for the political violence of the 1970s and early 1980s?