Lessons of the Past: The Caravan of Death and the Value of Memory

Abstract: The question posed by this research paper is what is the sociopolitical and cultural value of holding onto the memory of the disappeared (los desaparecidos), the people who were vanished and presumably killed by the dictatorships in Latin American countries during the sixties and seventies? In order to analyze this question on a manageable scale, the paper refers specifically to those who were lost to Pinochet’s “caravan of death,” the military death squad that swept along the length of the country following the military coup in 1973. For the purposes of this research, information has been drawn heavily from Patricia Verdugo’s interviews with survivors, news articles about the vigils and protests held by family members of the lost, and the documentary La Batalla de Chile, which the director, Patricio Guzman, captured during the events. With the information gathered, this paper supports the conclusion that holding onto the memory of those who were lost fulfills a spiritual need for closure, as well as a sociopolitical need for justice