The Living Memory of the Streets: Social, Cultural and Political Impacts in Chile

Abstract

Th is article argues that there is a specifi c social construction of memory process in Chile which, in an adverse institutional context, stems not only from specialized organizations, but also from a social appropriation of memory and human rights’themes by various social movements. By means of a plurisemiotic discourse analysis based on a material of slogans from demonstrations, and interviews with rights advocates, different aspects of the social construction of memory, whose public expression “in the streets” culminates in the 2019 social outbreak, are analyzed. This analysis shows that the social construction of memory in Chile should be qualified as counterhegemonic for its questioning of the post-dictatorial Chilean model as a whole, provoking
a change in the characteristic political language of the post-dictatorship and its victim-blaming narrative. Which associated social conflict with the democratic rupture, and defended amnesty as a condition required for achieving reconciliation and the stability of the Chilean model.