Memory and Tourism in Chile
A colleague called this to my attention. Clío and Mnemósine is an organization dedicated to "heritage tours."
The purpose of our project is to become one of Chile’s main promoters of heritage tours centered on Memory, Recent History, Cultural Heritage and Human Rights. Moreover, it aims at becoming the primary provider of training in the matter, and a point of reference for research projects on Memory, Recent History, Cultural Heritage and Human Rights.They are Chileans who want to make some of the most controversial and sensitive issues more accessible to foreigners. Without knowing anything about the organization itself, I like the general idea. There is a growing number of human rights-related museums in Santiago (e.g. see previous posts on my visits to the Memory Museum and Villa Grimaldi) but they are not really tied together. Getting some background, then visiting each in turn would provide valuable insights in Chile's political history.
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I'm currently reading Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America, edited by Ksenija Bilbija and Leigh A. Payne. There's an interesting section in it about what is referred to as "Trauma Tourism."
Some more attempts to connect memory-related sites are The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (www.sitesofconscience.org), Memoria Abierta in Argentina (website currently seems to be down but usually www.memoriaabierta.org.ar), Espacios de Memoria in Peru (http://espaciosdememoria.pe/index2.html).
As you'd expect from my interests, I am a "trauma tourist" wherever I go...
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