Memorialicidio
Human rights heritage under threat
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7473940 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Manuela Badilla Rajevic (0000-0002-9643-3761, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, corresponding author), Valentina Infante Batiste (0000-0002-7206-0278, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Gabriela Elisa Abarca Paillicán (0009-0005-3708-4636, University of Chile) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 49-64 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Memory Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-6980 • E-ISSN: 1750-6999 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17506980251388300 |
| OpenAlex | W4416071148 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
This article analyzes the recent wave of attacks targeting sites of remembrance of human rights violations in Chile. Between 2018 and 2024, more than 163 desecrations have been registered, reflecting the threat human rights’ heritage sites are facing in the midst of a rising far right and their denialist discourses. This phenomenon is conceptualized as Memorialicidio , that is to say, destructive actions that seek to cause damage to those commemorative sites, to materially eradicate the cultural and political legacy of the memorials and their communities, imposing a particular way of remembering. Through visual semiotic analysis, news review, and 20 interviews with experts in the study of memory, three dimensions of Memorialicidio have been identified: (1) their practices, (2) their perpetrators, (3) their impact on policies of memory. Finally, the article reflects on the new battles for memory in Chile and resistance to these attacks
Cultural Backlash
Cultural Memory and Early Civilization
The Struggle for Memory in Latin America
Remembering Pinochet’s Chile
Reparación simbólica, trauma y victimización
Patrimonio, derechos humanos y memoria en Chile. La calificación de los sitios de memoria como patrimonio cultural
Commemoration as Symbolic Reparation
Memories and silences of a segregated city
Pro-dictatorship memorialization in democratic Chile (1990–2020)
Memory studies in a moment of danger
The 2019–2020 Chilean anti-neoliberal uprising
Urban fallism
Torturous dialogues
The toponymic battle
De la represión al patrimonio
Memorial functions
Wounded cities
Human rights memorials in turmoil
Urban trauma
Post-conflict heritage
Trauma-heritage
Between iconophilia and iconoclasm
Memory and place
Rethinking the Right in Latin America
Rhythmanalysis
Raising the Dead
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |