Music and Memory
Transcripción
Music and Memory
Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana Music as Memory and Torture: Sounds of Repression and Protest in Chile and Argentina Author(s): Robert Neustadt Source: Chasqui, Vol. 33, No. 1 (May, 2004), pp. 128-137 Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29741848 . Accessed: 23/01/2015 17:35 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Chasqui. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MUSIC AS MEMORY AND TORTURE: SOUNDS OF REPRESSION AND PROTEST IN CHILE AND ARGENTINA Robert Neustadt Northern "Few cultural writes movements," Albrecht Arizona as had "have Moreno, University an effect profound on the social histories of their time as has theNew Song movement in Chile" (108). Nueva Canci?n, as themusic was called, played a significant political role in the periods preceding and during Salvador Allende's socialist Unidad Popular government in Chile. This new type of folk/protest music of Allende's the emergence supported Front. Popular and bands Singer-songwriters such as Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Inti-Illimani, Patricio Manns, Quilapay?n, Margot Loyola, Grupo Cuncum?n and others criticized the exploitation of the working class while exalting populist Nueva socialism.1 then, was Canci?n, both and supportive?it oppositional as a move? took form ment that protested injustice at the same time as it supported the establishment of Allende's for new The government. social song movement from justice a Pan-Latin became quickly American a call phenomenon, the Left. Chilean Nueva Canci?n's left-wing political agenda overlapped with a discursive project of cultural and and rhythms the Latin Andean elite's in rallies, a small autochthonous class ruling past. to bring over indigenous "the the masses from history, "Their of task," writes people" of in others Mark movement Canci?n the imperialism both dismissal striving injustices specific in the Nueva Musicians thus rejecting American songs benefited recalled and memory. recovery instruments associated culture. impoverished Mattern, "was U.S. indigenous sang a government to change Chileans. In some musically a sometimes to 'recover culture popular musicians Poncho-wearing together they resurrected embraced with the past,' cases, that songs mythical to 'recover the memory of their origins' and to find their 'lost race'" (40). Whereas the Chilean elite had tradi? tionally rejected new song artists rizing an idealized or ignored celebrated indigenous a connection version of traditional culture and any notion that they might have with native history. Rejecting indigenous capitalism nueva canci?n a new version asserted culture, roots, and valo? of Chilean identity. won suicide in 1967, almost three years before Allende the presi? 'Violeta Parra committed on a in Chilean is credited, for having interest folk music She nevertheless, catalyzed dency. movement. For an analysis the Nueva Canci?n of her role in national level, essentially founding on the Nueva folk music and her subsequent influence Canci?n movement, Chilean popularizing see Moreno. On Nueva Canci?n and Canto Nuevo see Morris. See also Mattern, 128 This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions chapter 3. 129 Robert Neustadt When the (U.S.-supported) coup of September 11, 1973 ousted theAllende government and those who with sympathized it, the military also war declared on, and with, music. for this extend beyond the purely symbolic. The combination of music's temporarily military Jara was a person's affect properties symbolic replaced five assassinated radio and later in a prison days and emotional psychological television balance. with programming that the military camp sonic, textual and the coup, During Nazi reasons The march established the Victor music. in Santiago's Estadio Chile. (In 1998 the Fundaci?n Victor Jara presented a petition to the Chilean government with several thousand signatures asking that the stadium be renamed officially "Estadio Victor Jara."On September 12, 2003 the stadiumwas officially renamed). Inti-Illimani and Quilapay?n happened to be touring outside of Chile at the time of the coup and they remained in exile for one From years. to play ued to another day their music. this music context on supporting the music roots), In this context, Chilean musicians that was violence meaning. a new of support in their homeland. The Musicians that was movement recovery of to decry the exile. outside from band, contin? in the postcoup the symbolic (via from in exile but songs, a populist of socialism cry of protest to garner attempted place taking in Chile. the same of instead Now, version a postcoup became outlawed to sing many a new of was Canci?n continued They took the emergence Chilean Nueva and of Chile released for example, Inti-Illimani, the lp album ?VivaChile! from exile in Italy in 1973. The album includesmany of the songs that for and celebrated called of the UP, Chilean the Unidad del poder "Canci?n class. working "La segunda to power. rise Popular's and popular" "Cueca links independencia" The the hymn "Venceremos," songs del C.U.T.," all celebrate the struggle the power in Chile the of move? to populist ments throughout Latin America. The album jacket includes the poem "C?mo en Espa?a" by Spanish poet Rafael Alberti equating the murder of Allende with the rise of Francisco Franco: "Al fin, ization of to Chile, war its cause: Canci?n the music o? La Nueva internationalizing crisis within on Nueva "Since text comprised of music, lyrics, a larger global As Moreno sphere. ?Viva Chile!?a the Chilean military's and the music this en Espa?a." que liner notes?located the Chilean out, points en Chile los mismos art and graphic Canci?n resulted ironically had heretofore been one is certainly in the international? pretty much the more of confined accom? ironic plishments of the military coup" (121). Exile allowed for continued freedom of expression, international expanded and a continuation solidarity of Nueva Canci?n's as protest focus music. In Chile, Nueva Canci?n had been essentially silenced from 1973-75 when it began to re in limited emerge represented a political fusing pe?as and coded another kind that had been identity the banned music and music with in public of solidarity expressions of recovery process. forced precarious to "la witness The of silenced the UP. Nueva The Canci?n, of reappearance de una memoria recomposici?n music to reconstitute attempted dictatorship memory of protest reappearance Chileans music, The underground. the politically bore (Torres). Through y una trizada identidad pol?tica puesta en entredicho por el autoritarismo" (Torres, 206). In 1976, Ricardo Garc?a (founder incarnation that would muchos of Sello of New be easy nombres vinculaci?n con Alerce Song music. to remember que coined Garcia explains and that would cumplieran la Nueva records) con dos Canci?n Chilena" in the name implied and regenerate?to remember?the and political of m?sica music comprometida developed, movements by that he evoke (quoted and sought the memory que requisitos: of memory importance both to recall process the term "Canto fuera its place that had been necessity, more name of Nueva f?cil in Torres, for this new Nuevo" a new for Canci?n: de retener 218 in history. severed sophisticated note "Buscamos y que sugiera 17). Note "Canto by postcoup the movement Nuevo" the coup. mechanisms This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This una the double arose new of as a arm poetic 130Music asMemory and Torture: Sounds of Repression and Protest discourse. As Mattern nuevo canto to effectively in order out, points needed coded of carefully the protection the authoritarian critique government metaphors. Canto Nuevo innovatedmusically on the traditionof Nueva Canci?n by incorporating the use of electric instruments, especially as drum as well and keyboards guitars kits. Nuevo Canto also borrowed rhythmically and harmonically from pop and jazz.Whereas the (now coded) political content nueva origins reveals was nuevo canto of Cuban trova from Nueva inherited (Silivio Pablo Rodr?guez, convolutions the historical of cultural also was the music Canci?n, and others). Milan?s Such by for musical trova, for example, nueva Cuban exchange. influenced a search had also previously received considerable influence from Chilean Nueva Canci?n (and other relatedmusical movements that emerged fromwithin Cuba and throughoutLatin America). Canto while of oppression often Nueva in Chilean centrally figures the memory of as no short novel, Skarmeta's Antonio literature. it comes politics, Berlin, Germany. Lucho's represents larger sociopolitical time as he struggles to adapt struggles to life in Germany consummate and to understand with struggles urges how at the same he fits the at the life his in exile. as he time that into hormones raging to terms with to come and sexual his is and he nada it is a novel of education," who at large. Lucho the world of to discover his name) (hence struggle a "novel constitutes narrative person context same He first that surprise No pas? is living inWest (1980), narrates the story of an exiled Chilean adolescent named Lucho who The the history recalled America. indigenous in Chilean has played that music the coup that before music Canci?n, recovering discursively the significance Given music to remember served then, Nuevo, fights, a Hans constitutes the physically, with competing German adolescents. A fight with boy named of climax dramatic plays that Lucho was role No pas? throughout close the two become Ultimately to abandon forced to become dream the novel. a key Music a new after guitar friends. In the novel's nada. opening and the coup paragraph that he has given we learn up on his a musician: Yo era mi cumplea?os y mi papi me regal? una guitarra. septiembre en la esquina ser cantante... los amigos del barrio cant?bamos Con quer?a nunca formar un conjunto para tocar en las fiestas de los liceos. Pero y quer?amos 13 de El entonces Politics sented didn't a form tocar have anything of by on a girl named falls who could share with to contemporary works that pop music though, Lucho decides to sing pop and that it is not necessary friends. his lacks depth. He songs to acquire store, When pop music. German in a record the Elektrola realizes music For Lucho, in music. interest his original that he listening Sophie (76) to do with entertainment learns German Lucho la guitarra... pude His he moves romantic first Musikhaus. that he never a girlfriend: "Reci?n una ami guita... conseguirse really ahora me repre? to Berlin, crush Ultimately loved Sophie doy cuenta cantar tonter?as para aprend? que Despu?s aware of the process of manipulation (90-91). Over time Lucho becomes esa idea de that the pop music identity: "Yo creo que hab?a sacado industry uses to shape youth con lindas" chicas los cantantes populares (91). las revistas donde siempre aparec?an fotografiados maturation. and intellectual course to Lucho's emotional in No pas? Music nada, runs a parallel a language that is charged becomes for dream and fantasy, music First a vehicle subsequently que uno no necesita ni palabras saber se necesitan" content. political in the novel At one point the song crowd rally s around with lyrics to him we find out Lucho attends "Venceremos." that the boy does a massive When not know protest a German the words and the dictatorship against to explain man asks Lucho or understand This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the song: the the Robert Neustadt 131 El se?or Kramer me solt? del hombro y cant? el estribillo, pero nada m?s que la parte que dice pero no hubo porque 'venceremos' caso, y mentira parece me y despu?s tuve que pero jam?s me a m? mir? le cantara que para as? con los hombros la he podido aprender. hacerle no que Y el resto, hab?a caso, es que no entiendo bien la letra. Por ejemplo no s? lo que es el crisol de la historia, ni qui?n es el soldado Me valiente. stems confusion Lucho's not dio verg?enza... from only his (113) age but also derives from re? of his the horizon cently lived experiences. Soldiers, from the perspective of a Chilean boy who's family lives in but bravery anything to an international canci?n in which of connote would exile, nueva movements and musical music and movement valor. from change scene This exile, for younger meaning transition the underscores and furthermore exemplifies over generations of the manner the course time. The scene above also a series represents structure the dramatic ing reiterates of embedded of No pas? conflicts Lucho nada: within conflicts to discover needs in so do? and the meaning of the song, while struggling to understand who he is and how his life fits inwith the political conflicts that surround him. By the end of the novella, Lucho not only understands the lyrics and the broad political context thathas given a particular shape to his life, but he is able to transmit this knowledge to others (his former archrival Hans and his new girlfriend Edith). "Venceremos" is of course a real song by Sergio as the rally that served Ortega, anthem for Allende's Unidad Popular inChile (for impressive images of massive crowds singing andmarch? ing to "Venceremos" in the streets see Patricio of Santiago Guzman's first film, documentary La batalla de Chile [1975]). The lyrics of "Venceremos" can be seen as amusical time capsule, un de crisol ment. la historia?a As farmers the title and reflection of the song suggests, and rhetoric to create attempts faith of the Chilean in popular unity socialist amongst move? workers, students: Venceremos, venceremos Mil habr? cadenas La miseria written before que romper venceremos Venceremos, Clearly the atmosphere sabremos the feminist vencer! movement?women figure into the song almost as an after thought: Campesinos, La mujer The popular march both de predicts soldados, mineros la patria a socialist tambi?n victory and invites the community to participate together in the joint project of history: Sembraremos las tierras de gloria Socialista ser? el porvenir la historia juntos seremos a a cumplir, cumplir, cumplir of the future tense. "Venceremos" Todos A Note the persistent to celebrate history, Skarmeta's use the Unidad Popular, in so doing Chilean history and an effort represented to endorse and create to literally make a socialist future. historical novel represents through a historical song in a fictional from the Unidad to the of In so plot moves Popular period military dictatorship. nada calls attention to the mnemonic as a vehicle of music function to remember doing, No pas? both the dreams of a precoup socialist the abrupt terminus of these dreams past and subsequently that resulted from the coup. At the same time Skarmeta's novel exemplifies the protagonizing role narrative. The This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions as Memory 132Music and Torture: of Repression Sounds and Protest thatmusic plays in the formation of identity.Music does not simply reflect a pregiven identity but as Simon rather, has Frith as part functions argued, the process of of formation. identity We cannot simply look at music to find a fixed reflection of Lucho. Pop music and nueva canci?n in exile contribute shared similar a generation and by extension of Lucho the formation towards of Chileans that experiences. As part of Patricio Guzman's documentary, "Chile, memoria obstinada" (1997), thefilmmaker commissioned a band of Chilean young people to play "Venceremos" while marching through the center of Santiago. This was purportedly the first time that the song had been played publicly in Chile in over 23 years. Although the band plays the song without lyrics, a great number of and rhythm of the socialist march. people immediately recognize the characteristic melody of onlookers Reactions political from vary jubilation a Chilean what of the Unidad triggers memories?memories this song perspective, and fear. No matter to anger listener's of the coup, Popular, and of those that disappeared during the dictatorship. For Chileans on theRight, thesememories constitute a political thorn; they would prefer to ignore the military's excessive use of force (excesses, which they insistwere committed by both sides inwhat they describe as a "war") and to celebrate instead the triumphs of neoliberalism. Guzman's ry changes were born unaware often taste between one have never these different to another. generation even heard in exile Young he was Although his political shape Chileans who In Skarmeta's "Venceremos." generations. that memo? the fact underscores its history from his experiences meaning, political with relationship disappear a bridge embodies as his can the dictatorship of the song's as well and time during Lucho novel, of Chile's exploration over originally consciousness of music. and understanding The short story, "El clarevidente," by the Chilean writer Gustavo Gonz?lez Rodr?guez (pub? in Pasi?n lished focusing story on focuses a collection la m?sica, por on music), how exemplifies the manner in which of music experience generations can a competition that entered stories successive function obsessively literature for music differently. as both the memory The and a symbol of a particular time in history. The protagonist, Antonio, fails in love with young folk singer Valentina named performing Unidad keeps Popular the time of the Unidad together, They spend a night Popular. for the work Political love. a at and making songs subsequently pe?a to into exile the coup takes place them apart for a time and when go they during Parra Violeta different parts of the world. Antonio spends his exile dreaming about nostalgically his long-lost love and when he returns to Chile fifteen years later he encounters a different (neoliberal) country and different music: Retorn? cuando definitivamente 88. Los del Prisioneros y Sol comenzaba y Lluvia del No para el plebiscito con reencuentros primeros de a mi af?n de cerrar un par?ntesis a afirmarme, de las que volver esc?pti? la campa?a marcaron tonalidades contradictorias el pa?s, d?ndole ra?ces a?os de lejan?a sin encontrar quince a con la co como respecto pol?tica llegaba y atado mis a una lejana noche de 1972 en el amor. (108) When scene he finds out at the door la puerta piel mate that Valentina bodes y all? estaba" lives for a nostalgic (109). The image tersa y sin se?ales in Santiago reencounter he with is an illusion, eventually paradise however, to visit. The the nerve gathers lost: "Toqu? el timbre, se abri? "era y no era la Vale. La misma rostro de frente abierta, del paso de los a?os. El mismo de entonces, un con vez los grandes ojos que m?s suaves recto. Los tal labios carnosos, poco y perfil p?mulos in the threshold is Valentina's sino grises daughter, (109). The apparition ya no eran pardos, a trace of the past both in her physical and in her name. She who constitutes appearance Violeta, This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 133 Robert Neustadt on is a living memory appearance brings the overlap and rous, from grows two of of name her of Valentina encounters their and personal memory inseparable levels: Whereas back memories historical and with music. his memory, the Unidad of Violeta shared experiences, Antonio's nostalgia intimate amo? and political Canci?n Valentina of justice dream her Parra, for Nueva with relationship collective Popular?the the memory evokes their the and democratic through socialism in Chile. knows Violeta Ironically, about nothing nueva her namesake, or canto canci?n nuevo. Violeta is a heavy metal fan, particularly fond of the British band, IronMaiden. When the realValentina returns home Antonio realizes that thewoman he has loved obsessively for years exists only in his memory. Her longer has over changed time interest and makeup, heels high "El sings. in Chile. of heavy not does "es cosa the extent underscores In spite in Iron Maiden in an office, works tells him, she canto," for Iron Maiden predilection Violeta's nihilism, or guitar plays daughter's music wears Valentina Today's and no form metal's to which association a criticism reflect wears a uni? del pasado" taste with (112). in popular head-bashing culture. of youth To the contrary, IronMaiden has a reputation of philosophical, religious, political and intellectual depth. Antonio is originally ignorant of this aspect. When looking at the album cover he asks Violeta if the group is "sat?ntico" (110). She mocks his ignorance, explaining that IronMaiden's em? blematic monster, as well band, is "capaz "Eddie," (110). Whereas Thatcher" nomenon de Iron Maiden as the fear and rejection a la reina asustar Isabel epitomizes contemporary it provokes, as another y de a Margaret estrangular the explains of a centuries-long phe? Violeta cynicism, instance of discrimination: Los que le cuelgan a IronMaiden el r?tulo de sat?nico son los herederos de la En Inquisici?n. Despu?s nistas. la Edad Media no saben Hoy a las brujas inventaron a Galileo torturaron y m?s nada mejor a los comu? libros y mataron a los rockeros. que perseguir sus hogueras. para alimentar tarde quemaron es una Sat?n criatu? ra de ellos. (110-11) in this way, Seen the character's of understanding Iron Maiden demonstrates certain compati? bilities with the social and political agenda of Violeta Parra andNueva Canci?n. Time has passed and the musical to authoritarianism opposition a markedly manifests different (non-Chilean) style, but we still see a Chilean youth culture identifying with music while denouncing the abuse of As power. the protagonist "una Violeta The attrition story a framework to then canto they nuevo, 1988. More and nuevo's as memory and For Antonio, who lives time before his memory to disappear March from mass outdoor concert people dilemma surprise were of the of cultural public amnesia attention. in Santiago's said to attend to the cumulative the coup. causing When Canci?n Years of the early Inti-Illimani constitutes dictatorship protest returned music, and and from exile on September de la Bandera Parque the concert communication (personal from since waned Mattem in Chile, points out 23, however, that canto the past ironically destabilized the music's force: political nuevo in on the one tension the its role between, hand, lay remembrance and maintenance of democratic identity and community with of canto of political and, on the other, politically to his encountered in the past, Nueva Canto nuevo's has 2003). popularity now plays for much smaller audiences. identification The and remembrance juxtaposes 25, Inti-Illimani strict in a kind resulted than 250,000 Coulon, even music the past. support a massive played Jorge and in Chile, censorship for his past searching (111). underscores of memory he went says, postmoderna" impotent its tendency nostalgia. to become Ironically, in terms of mass to confined, appeal, the role of canto nuevo in keeping mem This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions as Memory 134Music and Torture: of Repression Sounds and Protest ories alive also partly defined its failure. By looking backward it defined itself at least initially in nostalgic terms that failed to connect with the contemporary concerns This is not of many that all Chilean to say Los the group mentions, (63-64) lost its critical youth. music edge. As the narrator of "El clarevidente" resistance of a new type of musical representative became Prisioneros in Chile during the 1980's. Although Los Prisioneros's version of punk-rock referred only tangentially to politics (through the band's name for example) they played an important part in the prodemocracy of movement the 80's. Their "La voz song, de a young-person's became los 80" (1984), anthem. The song does not explicitly talk about Pinochet or the plebescite, but rather alludes to big that are on changes their way in Chile: est? naciendo grande Algo en la d?cada los ochenta de This "something big," requires that young Chileans leave behind the inertia of the 70's and that they band together to form a new force: Deja la inercia de los setenta abre los ojos ponte de pie escucha el el sonido sintoniza latido, tus sentidos agudiza vivo. est?s que date cuenta The song is both a reflection of young people's identity in Chile of the 1980's and also an ta"?documents imperative The the movement. to join invitation the political forms command changes la voz de los ochen? la fuerza viene refrane?"Ya song's on The in Chile. that were emphasis song's taking place Deja la inercia abre los ojos ponte de pie el sonido el latido, sintoniza tus sentidos date cuenta agudiza que est?s vivo escucha an example represents of popular music's constitutive relationship with "La voz identity. de los 80" narrates and describes the political changes taking place at this time inChile. The song also advises neously Los people builds to participate, how the very Prisioneros play in loose albeit movement prodemocracy an electric urban-style terms. ambiguous that it describes. "La voz simulta? los 80," to contemporary that alludes of music de conditions in Chile. Their song, "Las industrias" insists that the factories that emit choking pollution into Santiago's dissatisfied air should Chileans of dictatorship. move who "Dando elsewhere. returned patadas," no hope from evokes "?Por qu? no se van?" exile vis a vis others the alienation of underscores who have the tensions suffered between through Chileans a generation of young of Los Prisioneros the music years who, is less a job. Clearly of finding have educated, though don't sing about creating and canto nuevo. Los Prisioneros than Nueva Canci?n overtly political On the other hand, refer to the dictatorship. a workers' and their songs don't explicitly paradise a generation of alienated with what is about Chile wrong pollution, (unemployment, by singing in order in the patria. that all was discourse official the Dictatorship's etc.) they undercut youths "En los textos la cultura mo" (212). oficial, One "disappearance" de un fuerte y directo cr?tico a envi?n writes Torres, las canciones," "predomina el consumismo la dictadura, el arribismo la educaci?n, la moral, y el patriotis? the void that was left behind could say that Los Prisioneros by the reoccupied of Nueva Canci?n and canto nuevo. By contributing rhythm This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and lyrics to the Robert Neustadt "No" movement mos" 135 of '88), Los the plebescite to around.2 people rally evokes music bittersweet nostalgia Prisioneros (for a provided contemporary "Vencere? for young in No pas? nada and "El clarevidente," it can or in the most as extreme of violence, cases, can even function In Jacqueline Cuevas Narv?ez's short story, "El favor" in (also published a Chilean to sing the socialist la m?sica) forced his captives Pasi?n army captain por anthem, naked and upside down on meat "La Internacional," while hooks. Here hanging again we have Whereas also memories trigger unpleasant a medium of torture. an example of awriter inserting a historical song in a fictional narrative, in a story that oscillates between past and present. The Captain insists that they sing while undergoing torture in order to and to emphasize his prisoners lost their cause. As an agent of the fact that they have even humiliates the newly "order" the soldier the prisoners installed for not being able to sing on key. This act of violence "La Internacional" turns against him however in subsequent years. humiliate The excaptain is haunted by the memory of the song. Everywhere he goes he believes that he hears an the song instrument (and sees the faces of those he of torture during the dictatorship he employed tortured). The same song which now returns to torture his memory.3 as Argentine Mempo Giardinelli's short story, "Kil?metro 11" (1993), offers another striking of a text example mnemonic in which music of memories triggers of psychological weapon revenge. The torture and a constitutes simultaneously a party held by a group of men story describes who had been imprisoned together during the dictatorship.When the band begins to play the song "Kil?metro musical "el cabo Segovia," the man who 11," one of the men recognizes formerly provided to their torture sessions: "Morocho de ojos como y labiudo, accompaniment tajitos, a ellos 'Kil?metro tocaba 11' mientras los torturaban. Los milicos tocar y lo hac?an siempre cantar para que no se oyeran Segovia's of playing los gritos de los prisioneros" the victims' (50). By covering 11" effectively in the torture sessions. collaborated screams, "Kil?metro The story takes place in a time period subsequent to the dictatorship.When themen recognize Segovia they force him to take off his dark glasses and to play "Kil?metro 11" repeatedly, once for each of the former prisoners. This fictional scenario, recognizing a former torturer in Argenti? na (or for thatmatter in any country of the Southern Cone), is certainly feasible in reality. Julie Taylor describes such potential encounters in postdictatorship Argentina: "The terrorhad ended in 1983, followed by the courageous and unique trial and punishment of themilitary Junta by Argentine civilian courts in 1985. But soon thereafter new laws leftmost of the armed forces in turn in the minds of the population the constant a strange doubt as to whether free, leaving or torturer" be that of an assassin face might a (11). The scene in Giardinelli's story constitutes una kind of inverted "torture:" "el emparrado de romano circo en se el semeja especie que hubieran los roles de fiera y v?ctimas" invertidos ever touch of the men (50). None Segovia physically. Yet by obliging him to play and replay "Kil?metro 11" again and again, they both reiterate the fact that they recognize him and they force him to acknowledge his role in their torture. To torture, as it were, reopen, the scab 2Los Prisioneros success. certs in its most "a tocar de nuevo" Segovia November that sold out sense basic is to touch another's body with violence. By forcing the former soldier to tocar la herida, to (51) the exprisoners compel of time and anonymity that had been covering the crimes of the past. broke up in the early 1990s and pursued careers without individual much 30 and December the band reunited to play two con? 1, 2001, nevertheless, almost Over fans attended each concert in the Estadio 70,000 immediately Nacional. 3A true case had tortured him of a professor in the Estadio of professors signed work for a Chilean a petition university who (Felipe Ag?ero) allegedly recognized Nacional received international recently asserting that the former military officer another who professor a group when not be allowed to attention should (see Vald?s). This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions as Memory 136Music and Torture: of Repression Sounds and Protest The motivation for playing the song has changed directions: Originally used (in Giardinelli's fiction) as a means to cover the sounds resulting from physical torture inflicted by soldiers, it is a vehicle now to reopen the wounds of the past. For a type this constitutes Segovia, of psycho? logical torture because it forces him to recognize and acknowledge his complicity with the dictatorship. Although Giardinelli does not include any of the lyrics in the story, "Kil?metro 11" is an actual ch?mame song (music by Tr?nsito Cocomarola and lyrics by C. Alguer). On itsmost basic level the song appears to be a nostalgic plea for a reconciliation vez otra hasta Vengo aqu? de nuevo a of lost love: tu amor implorar ya no hay tristeza y dolor al verme lejos de t?. The song underscores the distance between the singer and the object of his desire. And yet while to guilt, anger and reconciliation of lost love, the references the lyrics clearly evoke a relationship "Kil?me? in Giardinelli's a different meaning when connote read in the context of postdictatorship of his past as a means for the transgressions tro 11." In the lyrics the singer claims responsibility to end his current suffering: Culpable tan solo soy de todo lo que he sufrido por eso es que ahora he venido triste estoy. y triste muy Notice as well the central role thatmemory plays in the song. On the one hand he begs her to anger, "olvida mi bien el enojo aquel," while their past love and his need for reconciliation. forget her forget never at the same time to her he beseeches Clearly we should not equate the relationship between the exprisoners and the Cabo Segovia with one lovers. of former The story "Kil?metro 11," nevertheless, represents, a music, through recontextualized state of nonreconciliation in a time of postdictatorship. Throughout the Southern Cone there exist neoliberal political movements whose ideologues argue that the time has come tomove beyond thememory of the dictatorships. It is time, according to some, to forget the past and to focus on the Argentinean and the present covered military as a representative of in the story, Segovia the song "Kil?metro 11," present-day to the future. Or, shortcuts the screams of the past, proposing ... un cafeci army says in "El favor," "Basta de recuerdos, an opposing "Kil?metro Giardinelli's 11," represents story, the future. Whereas of torture with the sounds similarly hope to cover politicians as the former captain of the Chilean to y a mirar (78). Mempo mujeres" to this perspective. Justice will remain incomplete, viewpoint for those injured. and reparations committed ty for crimes the crimes of the past can there be any movement exposing In conclusion, music offers a tangible cultural thread at best, without accountabili? public and the distance" by "going Only future reconciliation. towards through which of politics, one can read recent his? the history, an authentic Chilean identity," writes "They set out to recover as Chileans, to discover their roots and of who the question Mattern, they were in Canto answer cultural the Chilean of to and Nuevo, inconsistency" (153). question origins, to opposing the dicta? in addition a musical movement of protest whose cause, turn, embodies such as Los Pri? musical to remember Nueva Canci?n. movements, Subsequent torship, was in their a different sound that again brought the void with people sioneros, together occupied be seen as a punk Their to the Pinochet song "La voz de los 80," might dictatorship. opposition consciousness and built both collective a new kind of march that documented rock "Venceremos," tory. Nueva processes Canci?n identity "to answer Examples exemplifies the imbrication and memory formation. of and political symbol, in Chile resistance. of music ranging from in literature nostalgia of bear witness the hope to the pervasiveness socialism with associated of music to memories This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions as a mnemonic of the coup 137 Robert Neustadt the disappearance and of hope, and Nueva lives No Skarmeta's Canci?n. nada, pas? delineates the historical transition of Nueva Canci?n to an internationalizedmusical protest from exile, and narrates determinant in the protagonists's the manner in which music proves simultaneously story, "El Clarevidente," portrays similarly identity as a subject of history. Gonz?lez Rodriguez's across generational to canto nuevo and from Nueva lines. This narrative stretches Canci?n music Even beyond. to Chile, returning Cuevas Narv?ez's after of his past. nostalgia 11," both underscore use the protagonist story, "El that characterize the tensions as an instrument remains favor," life "exiled" in the permanently and Mempo Giardinelli's "Kil?metro in postdictatorship. texts recount These and subsequently demonstrate how memo? a psychological of torture in the present. the past constitute version the integra? Through as memory and torture, representing in literature, writers record music tion of music processes and recovery. of repression, protest the historical of music of torture ries of Works Cited Cuevas Narv?ez, Feria Concurso "Music Simon. Frith, "El favor." Pasi?n Jacqueline. del Disco 1996. Santiago, London: Gay. Giardinelli, Sage "Kil?metro 1993. Norma, Lom in Cultural Questions 1996. 108-27. Publications, Mempo. Editorial and Identity." la m?sica: por Chile: 11." El de Dios castigo de Cuentos Antolog?a 1996. ediciones, Identity. Eds. Stuart Hall Buenos (Cuentos). premiados 77-84. and Paul Aires: du Tesis-Grupo 49-53. Gonz?lez la m?sica: "El clarevidente." Gustavo. Pasi?n de Cuentos por Rodr?guez, Antolog?a Feria Concurso del Disco 1996. Santiago, Chile: Lom ediciones, 1996. 105-113. premiados La batalla de chile: La lucha de un pueblo Patricio. sin armas. New York: First Run/I? Guzm?n, carus Films, 1990. ?. memoria Chile, Mark. Mattern, New obstinada. Acting in Concert: York: First Run/Icarus Music, Films, 1997. and Political Community, Action. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP. 1998. ?. Music "Popular and Redemocratization in Santiago, Chile 1973-1989." in Latin Studies A merican Popular Culture 16 (1997), 101-13. Albrecht. Moreno, "Violeta Parra and La Nueva Canci?n chilena. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 5 (1986), 108-26. es necesario E. "Canto porque Nancy 1983." Latin American Research Review cantar: Morris, Antonio. Skarmeta, No pas? nada. In Ritos 21.2 de The New (1986): iniciaci?n: Song Movement 117-36. Tres novelas cortas in Chile, 1973 de Hispanoam?ri? ca. Ed. Gr?nor Rojo and Cynthia Steele. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. Julie. "Tango: Slap or Caress." Unpublished manuscript. en el Chile autoritario "M?sica con Cr?nica de una convivencia Rodrigo. (1973-1990): en Chile. Ed. Manuel flictiva." autoritarismo Antonio Cultura, y redemocratizaci?n Garret?n, Taylor, Torres, Sa?l Sosnowski andBernardo Subercaseaux. Santiago de Chile: Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica, 1993. Vald?s, 197-220. Ceclia. "Torture Charge Pits Professor vs Professor." New York Times 2001). This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:35:08 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (September 8,