Today, during our tour of Cordoba City, Fernando described Argentina’s journey in dealing with the effects of the dictatorship and their “Dirty War”. He spoke about how the country continues to preserve the memory of the human rights abuses that occurred 70 years ago through artwork, monuments, and museums, in an attempt to prevent those abuses from happening again. But a careful line is constantly being toed between remembrance and normalization. This discussion reminded me of a photo I took yesterday outside of the Municipalidad de Cordoba.

The photo itself is of an artwork installation outside the government building commemorating the Desaparecidos and the individuals who managed to escape the abuses. While it’s not pictured, just outside the frame was a group of teenagers playing music, dancing, and filming themselves. Seeing this made me think about how the different generations might relate to the horrific events of the past, and how that influences them to react in the present. While to most of the older generation, the artwork would’ve evoked a very personal reaction, the younger generation having no intimate knowledge of the events (knowing only what they know through textbooks or anecdotes) tends to be desensitized due to normalization.   

Fernando’s one statement really had an impact on me; no matter what has occurred in the past, for better or worse life moves on.