¿Invisibilización de la memoria de represión? El espacio urbano en disputa tras la matanza de Santa María de Iquique (1907-1957)

Abstract

This article questions the spatial dimension of the 1907 Santa Maria de Iquique massacre memories. The places associated with suppression, from school to mass grave, gave rise to precocious argument over memories between power and subaltern classes. Urban policies nationalist assaults participated in eliminating the traces of these violences, but were nevertheless confronted to the pugnacity of a working class keen to preserve the memory of the massacre in the urban space. The workers' resistance to oblivion materialised in a dissenting and sentimental occupation of space until the fiftieth anniversary of the massacre which saw memory return to the heart of the city. During the 1957 civic ritual, this marginalised memory was monumentalised and institutionalised. This recognition of state violence invites us to question the subversive nature of this memory.

Keywords

• memory
• massacre
• urban space
• proletariat
• Iquique