Museo De La Memoria

Interview

Eliana Loyola (68 years old)

1.       What is memory for you?

It is what we have to recall what has happened in the past.

2.       What things do you remember from that day? What were you doing?

I was watching the daily TV shows when all of a sudden the Radio transmission started to talk about the military coups and stuff.

3.       Do you think is important for us to remember what happened?

I think that we shouldn’t commit the same mistakes that happened before. And for that we must remember, which is important.

4.       Is there any one to blame?

The politic. Itself, obviously, can produce division between people. That’s what happened. That’s the thing to blame.

5.       What lessons can our country learn from this violent event?

Regarding of what happened. You can forgive but not forget.

6.       Is it important for our country to have “collective memory”?

If we want to rightly call us a “country”. We must assume that we have a collective memory, which states our past and future.

7.       Is it important to clarify each of the cases of missing people?

It is more necessary than important. We cannot forge a bright future if we have a dark past. We must cleanse these cases to apologize to the whole country.

8.       Do you believe in Human Rights?

Blindly.

9.       Do you remember or know any special case of “detenido desaparecido”?

I used to know a homeless man who used to sleep at nights in front of my house. I’ve never seen him since that day.

10.   How important do you think it was the work of “Vicaría de la Solidaridad”?

It was very helpful. Church is not useful nowadays.

The questions for me

1.       My first impressions of the Museum

My first impression was that it was going to be something new. I went by my own. So I could experience the great sightseeing that the building possesses.

2.       How I would define “memory”?

I think that memory is the collection of all of our personal experiences that we have gone through in our lives.

3.       How important for you is to have collective memory? Are there any changes in your thoughts or feelings after coming to this Museum?

If we want to rightly call us a “country”. We must assume that we have a collective memory, which states our past and future. Personally I believe that it’s not important to blame on someone or something anymore. It doesn’t matter who is or was guilty. I think it’s more important to remember this kind of events to now make them happen again.

4.       What artifact or picture called most your attention? Why?

Not only a single artifact. In the exhibition all the torture objects caught my attention. I just imagined how people in OUR country used these ones. It’s really horrifying just to reflect about that.

5.       Was it a good or bad experience? Why?

For me it was an individual experience. My thoughts and feelings that day were not changed. Even though I could say that to try to be in another’s position is something really heart-touching. I truly can tell that it was a good experience. You never end to learn and this taught me a lot of things that I would have never learnt by me own.