The social construction of the spaces of memory on the State terrorism in Argentina as places of authentic memory

In Argentina, public memory of events related to the forced disappearance of persons is evoked, amongst other possibilities, through the creation of spaces of memory dealing with State terrorism, spaces located in places that were formerly used as clandestine detention centers. Based on an ethnographic study, this article analyses how different actors (politicians, survivors, family members of desaparecidos, human rights activists and neighborhood associations) have identified and addressed a series of aesthetic, political and moral issues related to the representation of state terrorism within these spaces, as well as its transmission to younger generations. I am concerned with the relationship between material evidence and historical interpretation and, more precisely, how those involved in the process of memorialization construct a particular representation that reinforces the presentation of these places as spaces of authentic memory.