Ghosts andcompañeros: haunting stories and the quest for justice around Argentina's former terror sites

The ghostly presence of the disappeared in Argentina

“…The ghosts of the disappeared are also heard or seen by memory site professionals. Carina, who works in the query department at the archive of “Memoria Abierta,” an organization that holds the files of several human rights organizations and is housed in the former ESMA clandestine detention center, says that she hears insistent tapping coming from the floor above her office, but that the tapping stops when she says, “ Compañeros , I’ll be with you right after I finish working.” 23 For her part, Emiliano Fessia, director of the La Perla memory site in Córdoba and son of disappeared parents, claims not to fear the ghosts because “they’re compañeros ” (using, like Carina, the term commonly used among activists and militants to refer to each other), so he knows they mean him no harm (Schindel, 2014: 47). Even when they are seen as disturbing occurrences, they serve to strike up dialogues and prompt reflections that place the ghosts within a shared political community that dissipates any disturbing element.…”

“…The literature that exists in this sense describes them as effects of the terror and circumscribes their presence to the former clandestine detention centers and the cemeteries where their bodies were secretly buried (Schindel, 2014: 244–264 and Tello Weiss, 2016: 33–49). Some posit that this representation is typical of the semi-skilled workers of the former centers, who view the victims through the mystical lens of their religious worldviews (Schindel, 2014). Others argue that state terror replaced the specter of subversion with the ghostly figure of the disappeared (Quintana and Monteserín, 2010–2011: 199–217).…”

Haunting and transitional justice: On lives, landscapes and unresolved pasts

“…At first blush, dealing with the legacy of a violent past may appear to have little in common with notions of ghosting or haunting. I would, however, argue that the opposite is true: ghosts can be key to understanding how the effects of mass murder, genocide, slavery or colonial oppression extend far beyond the moment of atrocity to engender trauma that echoes for generations (Schindel, 2014; Schwab, 2010). Likewise, the work of truth, justice, accountability and memory is precisely about responding to the unsettled ghosts of the past and their presence amongst the living.…”

Cuentos de fantasmas. Persistencia espectral de los centros de detención y tortura chilenos

“…Tienen habitualmente la forma de rumores o chismes. Es a raíz de ello que la fuente principal de información a la que han accedido investigadoras como la mismaSchindel (2013) o Tello Weiss (2016) es, como ellas mismas señalan, la de la entrevista. En particular la entrevista casual, más bien desestructurada, siendo especialmente importante aquella información que se recoge al margen de la entrevista formal misma.En el caso chileno, además de la circulación de boca en boca que se da de forma solapada y escondida, estas historias han aparecido en medios públicos y han quedado en un registro más permanente y de circulación abierta.…”