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Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos

Published March 2, 2016

We walked to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights on Sunday to learn about Chile’s history. The museum remembers and gives visibility to the human rights violations of Pinochet’s military dictatorship during the 70’s-80’s.

We took advantage of the audio tours available in English ($2000 CLP). You get a remote-like object that works sorta like a cell phone, and you can follow along a narrated history starting with the coup in 1973 to the return to democracy in 1990.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I had little prior knowledge of the details of Chile’s history outside the fact that there was a dictatorship under Pinochet sometime back. I am glad that this was one of our first stops while in Santiago, since I think it helps me understand, not only recent history and the nation’s pain, but how the character of the culture has been shaped. Such a restrictive regime may explain the abundance of street art that colors Santiago.

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is on the wall outside the museum, along with outdoor exhibits.
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Prisoners that were beaten/tortured often only ever got to see the outside world through bathroom drains, with a seahorse design. The seahorse is now a symbol of hope and of survivors of brutality during this time period. Right: interactive exhibit; listening to political music of the periods, often banned by the military dictatorship.

The museum does a great job of storytelling, using video, audio, and artifacts of all sorts. It’s got a clean modern look, with 4 floors. We took our time and it took us a good 4 hours or so to listen to most of the audio tour and look through the exhibits.

Far wall, painting showing all the illegal excavation of artifacts in Syria, accompanied by a stop motion film on the screen to the painting's left.
Far wall, painting showing all the illegal excavation of artifacts in Syria, accompanied by a stop motion film on the screen to the painting’s left.

The top floor has special exhibits, with “Expolio” currently on display. It explores the destruction or disappearance of art using enormous paintings and stop motion films alongside them. It seems a slightly un-thought-of, yet natural to look at how art’s absence affects the memory of a nation or culture, along with the idea of these artifacts being a natural right society maintains.

The plaza hosted an outdoor exhibit with illustrations by artists ages 18-25 representing people or events from the Pinochet regime. They were accompanied with explanations of what they represented, and did a great job summarizing the museum, making history appealing and easier-to-digest.mala-memoria

Left: Coup d'état, Sept. 11, 1973. The military junta bombed the presidential palace, president Allende gave a farewell address on the radio then committed suicide. Right: the military's brutal rule included forced disappearances, torture, censorship, book burning, and other atrocities.
Left: Coup d’état, Sept. 11, 1973. The military junta bombed the presidential palace, president Allende gave a farewell address on the radio then committed suicide. Right: the military’s brutal rule included forced disappearances, torture, censorship, book burning, and other atrocities.

pinochet-nose

Left: "Donde Están" - Bloody ID cards represent all the missing persons. Right: Sebastián Acevedo, who set himself on fire in protest of his missing children. He died just hours later from the burns.
Left: “Donde Están” – Bloody ID cards represent all the missing persons. Right: Sebastián Acevedo, who set himself on fire in protest of his missing children. He died just hours later from the burns.
Left: "En Memoria de Marta Ugarte" - a communist activist, her half-naked and tortured body was found washed up on the beach, the first proof that the regime was dumping bodies into the ocean. Right: "Nostalgia en Lonquén" - missing persons were found in an abandoned and blown up lime kiln; the government tried to hide more killings.
Left: “En Memoria de Marta Ugarte” – a communist activist, her half-naked and tortured body was found washed up on the beach, the first proof that the regime was dumping bodies into the ocean. Right: “Nostalgia en Lonquén” – missing persons were found in an abandoned and blown up lime kiln; the government tried to hide more killings.
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“Hymno Para Recordar”

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2 Comments

  1. red red

    Thank you for the share. I was ignorant and knew only of the Kmer Rouge’s brutal discard for human life in Cambodia in the 70s.

    March 5, 2016
  2. Pari' Pari'

    I didn’t know anything about Chile’s history to be perfectly honest, so this was a good micro-lesson for me. Its always amazing to me how people can create and make beautiful things during such dark times, especially when the work is so symbolic and deep. I got to say, the “nose man” pen and ink is pretty fabulous!

    April 8, 2016

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