Site of Conscience Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi: A Site Museum that Connects its Social Function with Communities and Territory [i]
DANIEL REBOLLEDO HERNÁNDEZ
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), España
OMAR SAGREDO MAZUELA
Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile
ORNELLA ACERBI (translator)
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
THEORY AND PRACTICE, VOL. 4, 2021
Keywords museum studies; memory and human rights museum; sites of conscience; sites of memory; critical museology
Abstract This article addresses the experience of the site of conscience and museum, Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, in terms of territorial articulation and expansion of its work on human rights. In particular, it explains how, through museography on current conflicts and social projects involving vulnerable communities, the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi has managed to articulate knowledge and practices related to different generations of human rights, promoting the processes of construction of critical citizenship. It ends with some reflections on places of memory and their transformations into sites of conscience.
About the Authors Daniel Rebolledo Hernándezis ananthropologist and graduate in Anthropology, Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano and the Coordinator of the Área Museo of Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi. He holds a master’s degree in territorial planning and environmental management, Universidad de Barcelona and a diploma in Indigenous rights, Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano – Universidad Indígena Intercultural (UII). He is pursuing a PhD in diversity, subjectivity and socialization studies in social anthropology, history of psychology and education, UNED, Spain.
Omar Sagredo Mazuela is a political scientist with a master’s degree in international studies, Universidad de Santiago de Chile. He is a professor at the School of Political Science at the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano and a professional at the Área Museo of Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi. He is pursuing a PhD in interdisciplinary studies in thought, culture, and society, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile.
Introduction
The Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi is a site of conscience, a place dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights, and museum erected on the remains of one of the primary detention, torture, and extermination secret centers (CDTE) of the Chilean civil-military dictatorship era (1973–1990) located in the neighborhood of Peñalolén, in Santiago, Chile.[i][ii][iii] Know as “Cuaretl Terranova” by the repressive organizations, the compound operated between 1974 and 1978. It is estimated that approximately 4,500 people were detained there, of which 241 were killed or disappeared. Toward the end of the dictatorial regime, the center began to be demolished as part of a political strategy to destroy and conceal evidence of human rights violations. However, the neighbors of Villa Grimaldi, who soon joined former detainees, relatives of executed politicians and detainees who disappeared from the compound, and Christian communities in the area, organized themselves into the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights Peñalolén-La Reina to stop the complete demolition of the site. Their protests and denouncements eventually forced the Chilean Government to expropriate the property and grant it to this citizen group. In 1996, the Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi was established to oversee the construction of a space to preserve the memory of the victims of the dictatorship and to promote human rights, eventually known as the Parque for la Paz.[iv] Villa Grimaldi officially opened on March 22, 1997, with its symbolic design as its defining characteristic.
The communal efforts to recover and open Villa Grimaldi during the nineties were the first evidence of the interest that this site generated in Chilean civil society, in particular amongst the people living in the surrounding area. In the following years, the relationship between the site, its visitors, and the local population have adopted various expressions in the fields of human rights and memory, manifested in artistic projects, educational activities, and commemorations.[v] Specifically, within the framework of the development of the Villa Grimaldi Museum Project, the interactions between the site, the visitors, and the local area have generated valuable collective dynamics, in both the design and the materialization of museography and social projects, expanding the work on human rights discursively and performatively.
In consideration of the above, this article analyzes the experience of the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi in terms of territorial articulation pertaining to historical memory and human rights. In particular, it explains how, through museography on current conflicts and social projects involving vulnerable communities, the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi has managed to articulate knowledge and practices related to different generations of human rights, promoting the processes of construction of critical citizenship. To exemplify this process, the projects “Peñalolén in Memory” (2019) and “Sites of Conscience and Violated Territory: The Human Right to Live in a Healthy Environment” (still in process), and the exhibition “Vestiges and Traces of Protests and Repression. The Social Outbreak Through Material Culture” (2020).
The Villa Grimaldi Museum Project
In 2005, the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park Corporation organized an international seminar to promote the official initiative to build a human rights museum at the site, emphasizing historical memory, education, and connection with the national museum networks, such as the International Coalition of Consciousness Sites. Although the main challenges of the future of the museum revolved around how to meaningfully represent the past horrors, guidelines were also developed regarding the contribution of a culture of human rights:
…the visit to the Museum should link the experience of daily life and the reference of human rights that it seeks to transmit, that is to say, its entry must produce emotion, shock and reflection on what happened, but somehow it must generate connections with contemporary experience.[vi]
From then on, progress was made in the development of various areas of work that would materialize into the museum project. Notably, an Oral History Archive was started to document the memories of survivors of the site, relatives of victims of the dictatorship, and human rights defenders. Additionally, an affiliation with both the International Coalition of Consciousness Sites, as well as the International Council of Museums (ICOM), was established.
In 2009, the Villa Grimaldi Museum Project was formally launched by a team of professionals who had developed a participatory consultation program to define the general guidelines and the museological plan.[vii] Regarding the principles of the critical museology framework, the project sought to emphasize the constituent process of meaning for the visitor, both as appropriation and social use of heritage and memory, the objects being in service of that goal.[viii] The process revolved around both the conceptual and practical approaches of the Parque por la Paz to define a “site of conscience” through memory exercises that sought to transmit history, as well as focus on promoting contemporary human rights education and developing democratic dialogues that enable the construction of a collective memory.[ix]
The project gave rise to the Museum Area, one of the departments of the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, which is in charge of conservation, archives, research, and content generation.[x] In recent years, the heritage management of the site has become more complex as a result of the development of various research and creative projects that highlight contemporary and little-addressed aspects of human rights in Chilean memory sites. From these latter perspectives and purposes, three critical issues have been addressed: violations of the right to housing in the recent past, violations of the right to a healthy environment, and police violence against political protesters. These issues have been explored through museographies and projects that contemplate investigations in the local area and actively involve these vulnerable communities. The three initiatives developed for each of these areas are described below.
The need to address contemporary issues from a human rights perspective has been reflected in the public studies carried out by the Museum Area. On average, studies for the 2010–2019 period indicate that 23.34% of visitors consider it relevant that the site addresses human rights violations in the present, with a sustained increase in the last three years.
This dynamic is directly related to the increase in social demonstration and the claim of civil society over historical social demands, which have been strongly repressed by the state, resulting in a tragic increase in human rights violations.[xi]
Project “Peñalolén in Memory: Of Popular History and Resistance”
The objective of this project was to recover and value the memory of the inhabitants of Peñalolén, connecting these memories with the economic, political, and social processes that led to the settlement of this place, addressing, in particular, the conformation of the most emblematic populations: La Faena, Lo Hermida, and San Luis de Macul. These were related to the collective experiences around the resistance to the civic-military dictatorship, which in the Peñalolén neighborhood cost the lives of thirty-four people, today remembered in the Plaza de Los Mártires, located at the intersection of Ictinos Street and Greece Avenue.
The active participation of the residents, many of them mobilized in secret under the eaves of chapels, parishes, and neighborhood associations, saved many lives and was essential for what was later the citizen recovery of Villa Grimaldi through the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos de Peñalolén y La Reina, an organization that, together with relatives and survivors, fought against the planned destruction of the memory site.[xii]
In this way, the project was related to two intersecting objectives. To recover the relationships with the communities surrounding the site of conscience, which made their recovery early, but which, as time passed and with the generational change, had begun to diminish and, on the other hand, to recover and value the memory of the inhabitants, associated with the processes of claiming housing, from the perspective of the human right to adequate housing.[xiii][xiv] As a result, a traveling exhibition was held based on testimonies and family photographs that were recovered during the investigation phase, which was inaugurated at the Villa Grimaldi Museum, and later presented in neighborhood spaces inside the communities, as well as a small publication that accompanied the exhibition, which was given to visitors, territory organizations and community-managed libraries.
Among the most interesting results from this project is the possibility of jointly creating a collective memory, based on the personal experiences of the interviewees. These participants, for the most part, did not realize that their life story was relevant and thus were often missed in the interview process, but over the course of the project, they began to recognize that everyone can be a participant in the construction of history. Another effect was the possibility of generating an intergenerational dialogue between grandparents, parents, and children, because this story, for the new generation, was, in many cases, unknown and had not been a subject of conversation within families.
Among the most interesting results from this project is the possibility of jointly creating a collective memory, based on the personal experiences of the interviewees. These participants, for the most part, did not realize that their life story was relevant and thus were often missed in the interview process, but over the course of the project, they began to recognize that everyone can be a participant in the construction of history.
Exhibition “Vestiges and Traces of the Protests and Repression. The Social Outbreak Through Material Culture.”
This exhibition arose as a quick response, from the sitio de conciencia y museo de sitio Villa Grimaldi, to the “Social Outbreak” that occurred in Chile in October 2019, characterized by a broad and cross-sectional phenomenon of social mobilization that sought to vindicate a series of historical social demands under the concept of “dignity,” associated mainly with policies and models inherited from the civic-military dictatorship of the 1970s. This event was colloquially known as the “Social Outbreak” due to the rapid and unpredictable emergence and developments during the first weeks. Citizen mobilizations summoned thousands of people into the streets of the whole country, during which demonstrators were accosted, arrested, tortured, and even murdered by state agents. Widely disseminated globally were images of the hundreds of victims of eye trauma caused by riot control projectiles fired by the police.[xv]
The exhibition had three approaches. The main one consisted of an exhibition of physical objects recovered in different sectors of the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, after the days of protest, to inspire the visitors to reflect upon the demonstrations, resistance, and police repression. In this way, with their own urban archeology techniques, and advised by a group of archaeologists who were recording the events, two large groups of objects were recovered and exhibited to show the elements in dispute: objects related to the social demonstration, in which domestic kitchen utensils were used to make noise (pots, pans, spoons, among others), and objects of repression, used by the riot police (shot cartridges, tear gas, remnants of other types of projectiles). The second approach was related to a sample of ninety photographs taken by groups of independent photographers who had actively participated, up to that moment, in recording the “Social Outbreak,” documenting the resistance, solidarity, affection and violence represented in the streets. Finally, and in order for the exhibition to have a transversal objective—the visibility of the human rights violations that were occurring with increasing frequency and magnitude during the demonstrations—an association was made with the Proyecto Archivo de Memoria Audiovisual (a group of independent journalists and audiovisualists who were recovering and recording video testimonies of victims of police violence). The audiovisual records of this group were projected in a building that is part of the Sitio de Conciencia Villa Grimaldi, which, previously, was a part of the repressive history of the site.
The exhibition was originally supposed to travel to other museums, such as spaces within communities and territories, in order to promote a critical dialogue and denounce the human rights violations that were taking place. Unfortunately, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to physically move it, which is why we quickly worked together with the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos to create a virtual version.[xvi]
Project “Sites of Conscience and Violated Territory: The Human Right to Live in a Healthy Environment”
This project, funded by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the Konrad Adenauer Chile Foundation, sought to raise awareness of the violation of the human right to live in a healthy natural environment, addressing the situation in three Chilean towns particularly affected by socio-environmental conflicts associated with anthropic causes, which have been logged in reports from the National Institute of Human Rights and particularly in the case of Petorca and Quintero-Puchuncaví, in the press and international environmental organizations.[xvii] Through a multidisciplinary and ethnographic approach, the aim was to explore the daily reality of the communities and their inhabitants by sharing life stories of the victims of the violations of the human right to the environment. This was done to give a face to their experiences, to sensitize the overall population to their plight, and to open a public dialogue that allows us to generate a critical reflection of what is happening, as well as to recognize the challenge and responsibility that we have as a society to change the situation.
Three axes of investigation were conceived, each associated with an element of nature that has been affected by environmental degradation, and each an exemplar of a particular locality in Chile. Fo the water axis, Petorca was visited, a foothill rural town that suffers from a critical water shortage, due to the installation of large industrial agricultural productions based on the monoculture of avocado. Although a widely valued fruit for both domestic consumption and export, avocados require a substantial amount of water to grow. This situation has seriously affected access to drinking water in the surrounding communities, going so far as to not even guarantee the minimum standards indicated by various international organizations. The landscape was transformed, draining rivers and estuaries which exacerbates desertification, and in the loss of former traditional crops. The aforementioned situation contrasts with the prevalence of massive water storage pools, owned by large industrial agricultural companies who capture both groundwater and upstream water flows, albeit irregularly.[xviii]
In the air axis, fieldwork was carried out in Quintero and Puchuncaví, a coastal area of the central region of Chile, where an unprecedented industrialization process began in the mid-nineteen-sixties, currently home to more than fifteen large companies, including four coal-fired thermoelectric plants, a copper refinery and smelter, storage areas and preparation of fossil fuel by-products, as well as gas distribution and others dedicated to the import and distribution of chemical products. This caused the towns to become a “Sacrifice Zone” with high levels of sulfur dioxide air pollution, which has also affected water and land. Farmers and ranchers helplessly witnessed the changing landscape as the growing pollution stopped agricultural production while their animals died on their formerly fertile lands.[xix] Additionally, fishermen witnessed changes in the marine ecosystem and on seafood, which became contaminated and are only consumed locally, since there is a ban on their sale outside the area due to the amount of heavy minerals they contain.[xx] Over time, with the cumulative effects of exposure, people began to get sick, resulting in high levels of liver, lung, and skin cancers, births with congenital malformations, cognitive and learning problems in children, frequent cases of poisonings; many of these cases were covered in the media, but were quickly forgotten. [xxi]
Finally, on the land axis, there is Neltume, a foothill town in the Valdivian temperate rainforest, 900 kilometers from the capital, Santiago de Chile. The visit sought to discover the perspective of the indigenous Mapuche communities and the problems associated with land and water, essential elements of their worldview and cosmogony, in which they value a harmonious relationship with the land and nature.[xxii] It has been the source of historic controversies with the Chilean State, especially in recent years, as the development of private projects directly affects them.[xxiii] These relationships, and the lack of an adequate public policy with an intercultural perspective, has led to the criminalization of the indigenous ethnic group, as ancestral rights and cultural practices are not recognized, considering them, in the reading of some indigenous law scholars, as an “enemy in criminal law” as they are alien to the prevailing social and economic regime, being judged from an ethnocentric perspective.[xxiv] The perpetuation of the conflict and its management has brought with it serious violations of human rights, with political, social, and cultural implications.[xxv]
This project resulted in several exhibitions and programs based on the field research. First, a traveling exhibition visited each locality, presenting the socio-environmental conflicts and contextual information, recovering life stories and photographs, bringing the realities of the victims of the violation of human right closer to a healthy environment, and ultimately enabling critical reflection and a moral position. Second, socio-environmental education workshops were offered, with the aim to sensitize the community through practical content, and to develop attitudes, opinions and skills that can be internalized by individuals as sustainable and responsible behaviors that minimize environmental degradation. Third, a publication that focuses on the life stories of the inhabitants, to help generate a collective memory of the local population that illustrates their transformation as socio-environmental conflicts intensify and grants a qualitative interpretation to these phenomena in the socio-historical context of the country. Finally, an original theatrical performance, which was developed via a process of collective creation based on the interviews and life stories recovered in the fieldwork, focusing on generating empathy for these different realities, but also a political stance and denunciation of the human rights violations suffered by its inhabitants.[xxvi]
In methodological terms, the design and execution of the project was a challenge, since it began in parallel with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and intermittent quarantines situations restricted mobility and large gatherings. For this, we worked at first with a group of students in professional practices, who during the hardest periods of quarantine, worked on an analysis of the territories, a review of bibliographic material, environmental indicators, statistics, maps, and photos of areas and interviews through videoconference software, in addition to the continuation of instruments and field guidelines. With the collected information, a field guideline created for each locality, which included an identification of the milestones and relevant dynamics associated with the socio-historical and environmental processes of each case studied. These were also integrated into the semi-structured question guide for the life stories, based on the reconstruction of the biographical chronology of the subjects. Coinciding with the first limited end of lockdown, the fieldwork was carried out in the local areas.
The field work was carried out satisfactorily and greatly appreciated by the local communities who felt listened to and respected, because most of the interventions and/or research on socio-environmental conflicts generally focus on the problem and its effects, rather than the individuals themselves in their biographical and holistic dimensions, which allows a better understanding from a human rights perspective.[xxvii] Not calling off the project in the face of the pandemic led us to reflect on the importance of the role of museums as institutions that are close to and socially responsible for the local communities and their social function, which was positively received.[xxviii]
Strategically, it was decided to collaborate with local institutions in two locations that had sites of conscience: the Corporación de Memoria y Cultura de Puchuncaví and the Centro Cultural Museo y el Memoria Neltume, which both work in their communities. Likewise, meetings were held with various territorial organizations, inviting them to be a part of the project. This project is being documented and considers ex-ante and ex-post evaluations in order to measure impacts, and possibilities for improvement, in the hopes of creating replicable methods.
The Projection of a Site of Conscience as a Museum Site: Human Rights, Community and Territory
The potential for a conscience site to develop into a museum site lies not only in that it, as a historical place, fosters a link between past and present to transmit a particular memory, but also in how this characteristic allows it to be linked with two great challenges. First, to expand human rights education through the historical meaning of these spaces, allowing a broad public, critical, and democratic dialogue to be opened around contemporary problems from a rights perspective. Secondly, to project, link, and portray the historical memory that these spaces protect, with the communities and localities in which they are situated, therefore projecting their social function.
The transformations and processes of social change that have been presented in different parts of the world in recent years endorse the need for socially committed museums that can facilitate citizen dialogue, promote critical reflection on the present from a human rights perspective and contribute to the search for social justice.[xxix] In this way, the site of conscience and site museum Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi becomes part of the premise that “all museums can be human rights museums,” to the extent that these are considered the ethical imperative and mobilizing the actions of the institutions, ensuring their promotion and protection, regardless of their collections and themes.[xxx] In this dimension, the work of Villa Grimaldi stands out as a human rights museum that materializes an ethical commitment to democracy and fundamental rights, guaranteeing the safeguarding of memory and museography of contemporary conflicts and generating community interventions, thus unveiling the false neutrality of museums.[xxxi]
Through the experiences described, it is clear that the importance of protecting and valuing the memories and vestiges of the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi would not have the same relevance, impact, or urgency if the past were not actively and critically linked to current and pressing problems.
In addition, it opens intergenerational dialogues that facilitate the transmission of narratives to new generations and discussion within family groups.
The above involves the inclusion of methodologies and strategies that can link the different types of audiences with the exhibitions in an effective way, achieving the intended impact. In this sense, the activation of the historical perspective on the site of conscience, linked to contemporary human rights problems, allows the site to improve the understanding and scope of situations from the past and present. In addition, it opens intergenerational dialogues that facilitate the transmission of narratives to new generations and discussion within family groups. The interdisciplinary approach— involving anthropological tools, such as ethnography and oral history—to the projects also stands out, which has allowed us to know the impact that human rights violations have on everyday life by hearing from the experience of the victims themselves, empathizing with their realities and facilitating, through their testimonies and life stories, the connection with the various types of audiences through exhibitions, publications, talks and other programs.[xxxii] Finally, in all the experiences presented, the early connection with local and grassroots social organizations (OBC) has been fundamental, to linking to the topics studied, facilitating the work, and granting legitimacy to the actions carried out in the communities.
On the other hand, the site is mobilized by the possibility of innovating and decentralizing the work, not only in geographical terms, by linking organizations and similar institutions in the affected territories, but also granting new ways of approaching the topics that can break with the prevailing linear ethnocentric vision. In this sense, a comprehensive perspective must consider intercultural and gender aspects, and be careful how it communications with different demographics.
The existence, impact, and validity of the narrative of the sites of conscience will depend, as the generational change continues, on their ability to adapt and connect with the communities, surrounding area, and their contingent problems. Likewise, due to the political burden placed on these sites and their dissonant heritage, the possibility of consolidating and validating the work is conditional on their work as promoters of human rights and democracy being recognized as universal and inalienable values in the construction of countries.[xxxiii]
List of Figures
Figure 1: Visit to the conscience site in the “Plaza de la Esperanza” sector, carried out by a survivor.
Figure 2: Neighbors of the Peace Park visit the exhibition that recovers the memory of the communities of the territory.
Figure 3: Presentation of one of the cabinets with domestic objects used in the demonstration to make noise, recovered with urban archeology techniques.
Figure 4: Inauguration of the exhibition in January 2020 amidst the “Social Outbreak”.
Figure 5: Luis Gilberto Tapia, in front of one of the many accumulator pools of agricultural companies. In contrast, the communities lack water for domestic consumption.
Figure 6: Carlos Vega, diver and treasurer of the Las Ventanas Fishermen’s Union, pointing out some of the companies installed on the coastline, meters away from the fishermen’s cove. Figure 7: Olga Mardones, president of the community of the Mapuche Triguicuicui ethnic group and her daughter, in the town of Pallahuinte.
Notes
[i] This article is the result of a study of personal interest to the authors and does not necessarily represent the thoughts of the Board of Directors of the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park Corporation or their employees. The Spanish to English translation of this paper was made by Ornella Acerbi of Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
[i] Site of conscience refers to spaces that activate their historical perspective to open a public dialogue around contemporary issues, promoting a culture of human rights, and advocating for a society built on the basis of peace, social justice and the appreciation of democracy through the exercise of active, critical and inclusive citizenship (Daniel Rebolledo, “Memorias en la ciudad: La integración de sitios de conciencia en el territorio como patrimonio urbano. El caso de Santiago de Chile” (Master diss., University of Barcelona, 2019).
[ii] The definition of “museum site” proposed by the Chilean Museum Registry (dependent instance of the National Sub-Directorate of Museums of the National Service of Cultural Heritage): “A Museum conceived and organized to protect a natural and cultural heritage, movable and immovable, preserved in the place where it is heritage has been created or discovered (ICOM 1982). Memory sites are considered within this category created to commemorate an event linked to national political history.” “Museum of site”, Museum Registry Chile, accessed January 19, 2021, https://www.registromuseoschile.cl/663/w3-propertyvalue-74011.html
[iii] The Chilean civil-military dictatorship established a repressive network to persecute, torture, assassinate and disappear their opponents. This repressive system, according to the 2003 National Report on Political Prison and Torture, had 1,132 precincts used by security agencies to kidnap, detain, punish and murder opponents.
[iv] The Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi is a private non-profit entity that, by Exemption Decree N ° 170 of March 17, 2005 of the Ministry of National Assets, is in charge of managing and to value the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi for memory site, formerly ‘Cuartel Terranova’, orienting its work to promote and defend a culture of human rights within Chilean society. The Corporation is made up of an assembly of partners, most of whom are former detainees, family members and agents who participated in the recovery process. From among the partners, a Board of Director is chosen democratically every two years and is composed of a President, a Vice President, a Treasurer, a Secretary and three directors. For more background on the Corporation and its activities, you can check its web site: http://www.villagrimaldi.cl.
[v] Annually, the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi receives more than twenty-five thousand visitors, of which nine thousand correspond to students of elementary, secondary, and higher education. On the official website of Villa Grimaldi (www.villagrimaldi.cl) you can review all the information regarding the record of hearings.
[vi] Osvaldo Torres, “El Museo que queremos”, in Seminario Internacional “Un museo en Villa Grimaldi: Espacio para la Memoria y la Educación en Derechos Humanos” ed. Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Santiago: Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi e Ilustre Municipalidad de Peñalolén, 2005): 136.
[vii] Carolina Aguilera, “Proyecto de Museo en Villa Grimaldi. Una apuesta participativa de construcción”, in Ciudad y Memorias. Desarrollo de sitios de conciencia en el Chile actual eds. Carolina Aguilera and Carolina Cárama (Santiago: Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, 2011), 103-04.
[viii] Carolina Aguilera, “Hacia una perspectiva de Educación en Derechos Humanos a partir de la experiencia de Villa Grimaldi”, in Ciudadanía y memoria. Desarrollo de sitios de conciencia para el aprendizaje en derechos humanos eds. Carolina Aguilera and Rodrigo Millán (Santiago: Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, 2011), 69.
[ix] The definition of “sites of consciousness” describes those places “in which the reinterpretation of the history through the relationship with spaces and materialities; audiences engage in programs that they foster dialogue on pressing social issues; Opportunities are provided for collective participation in issues raised on the site and; democratic and humanitarian values are promoted as a goal fundamental. “Interpretation of Sites of Memory”, Coalition of Conscience Sites, accessed January19, 2021, https://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/933/
[x] “Museo”, Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, accessed January 19, 2021, http://villagrimaldi.cl/museo/
[xi] To delve into the human rights violations committed in this period, review the reports of the Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos (2019), OHCHR (2019) and Amnestia Internacional (2020).
[xii] To delve into the history of the recovery of the site and, especially, about citizen participation in this process, it is possible to review testimonies number 191 and 192 of the Villa Grimaldi Oral Archive (relative to the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights) and the book 20 años Sitio de Memoria. Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi edited by the Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi in 2017.
[xiii] This statement corresponds to one of the conclusions of the focus groups carried out on various profiles and age groups at the Peñalolén commune within the framework of the project “Museo de la memoria y los derechos humanos de Villa Grimaldi: diseño de especialidades museológicas y sistematización del Archivo Oral para el Museo EIDHR/2009/172-078” funded by the European Union and executed between 2009 and 2011.
[xiv] Alejandra Mansilla, “Shanty Towns as an Expression of the Right of Necessity”, Revista de Ciencia Política 37 (2017): 759–64.
[xvi] To review the virtual version of the exhibition visit: https://conectadosconlamemoria.cl/exposicion/vestigios-y-huellas-de-las-protestas-y-la-represion/
[xvii] For more information: Nicky Milne, “As sales boom, Chile’s ‘green gold’ is blamed for water shortages”, Reuters, June 3, 2019, accessed May 2, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-water-chile-environment-idUSKCN1T41AL; Louise Voller, “Avocados and stolen water”, Danwatch, March 19, 2017, accessed May 2, 2021, https://old.danwatch.dk/en/undersogelse/avocados-and-stolen-water/; Alberto Valdes,“Quintero, the Chilean town sacrificed to pollution”, EFE, October 15, 2018, accessed May 2, 2021, https://www.efe.com/efe/english/business/quintero-the-chilean-town-sacrificed-to-pollution/50000265-3781394
[xviii] Jessica Budds, “La demanda, evaluación y asignación del agua en el contexto de escasez: un análisis del ciclo hidrosocial del valle del río La Ligua, Chile”, Revista de Geografía Norte Grande 52, (2012): 168.
[xix] This is a statement made by Mercedes González, from the town of Puchuncaví, within the framework of this project.
[xx] These assertions were expressed by Carlos Vega and Justiniano Lagos, fishermen from the town of Las Ventanas and Horcón, respectively, within the framework of this project.
[xxi] For the effects on children and adolescents, review the study carried out by the Defensoría de la Niñez (2019) titled Estudio Afectación de niños, niñas y adolescentes por contaminación en Quintero y Puchuncaví. For the effects and risks for human health and the ecology in the localities, check: Jaime Tapia-Gatica, et al. “Advanced determination of the spatial gradient of human health risk and ecological risk from exposure to As, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soils near the Ventanas Industrial Complex (Puchuncaví, Chile)”, Environmental Pollution 258 (2020): [online].
[xxii] This mention was developed by Beatriz Chocori, a member of the Indigenous Parliament of Coz, in the interview within the framework of this project.
[xxiii] These events were mentioned by Noemí Catrilaf and Viviana Riquelme, inhabitants of the indigenous communities of the Panguipulli commune, within the framework of this project.
[xxiv] Myrna Villegas. Villegas, El Mapuche como enemigo en el Derecho (Penal). Consideraciones desde la biopolítica y el derecho penal del enemigo (Castilla-La Mancha: Instituto de Derecho Penal Europeo e Internacional de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2011).
[xxv] For more information, review Jesús Antona Bustos Los derechos humanos de los pueblos indígenas. El Az Mapu y el Caso Mapuche (Temuco: Ediciones de la Universidad Católica de Temuco, 2014), especially with regards to the notion of justice, which should not only be conceived as a property dispute, looking to establish minimum standards that can be universally validated, but must also contemplate a common context that ensures the conditions of existence of both the subjects and their cultures, requiring an intercultural approach.
[xxvi] Miriam Mondaca, “Obra aborda experiencias locales por conflictos socioambientales”, La Estrella de Quillota, March 5, 2021, accessed May 2, 2021, http://www.estrellaquillota.cl/impresa/2021/03/05/full/cuerpo -main / 18 /
[xxvii] The Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos (2012, 246) defines socio-environmental conflicts as “disputes between various actors—natural persons, organizations, public and private companies, and the State—manifested publicly and expressing divergences of opinions, positions, interests and filings of demands for the affectation (or potential affectation) of human rights, derived from the access and use of natural resources, as well as the environmental impacts of economic activities ”.
[xxviii] An example of this fact is the dynamic that arose in the presentation of the ethno-theater work where, after its presentation, some of the inhabitants represented in it asked to speak and commented that they were reflected in the theatrical presentation, emphasizing how important it was to make the urgency of water shortages visible, especially during the pandemic in Petorca, thanking the instance and the ethical way of carrying it out.
[xxix] Luis Castro, “La protesta social en América Latina”, Revista Rumbos TS. Un Espacio Crítico Para La Reflexión En Ciencias Sociales 23 (2019): 160-161. Paul Almeida, Movimientos sociales: la estructura de la acción colectiva (Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2020).
[xxx] “All museums can be human rights museums” was the slogan of the 2018 annual meeting of the ICOM International Committee to Encourage Collections (ICOM COMCOL). Check: https://nuevamuseologia.net/todos-los-museos-pueden-ser-museos-de-los-derechos-humanos-icom-comcol-2018/
[xxxi] Luz Ochoa, “Museos y memoriales de derechos humanos”, in Diccionario de la memoria colectiva ed. Ricard Vinyes (Barcelona: Gedisa, 2018), 342–344.
[xxxii] For the team of researchers in this project, it was important to contribute to the knowledge about socio-environmental conflicts in Chile from a perspective different from the traditional judicial treatment of human rights violations, emphasizing the experiences, feelings and knowledge of the affected people.
[xxxiii] John Tunbridge and Gregory Ashworth, Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict (New York: J. Wiley, 1996).
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The Museum Scholar 