Memories of Exile and Temporary Return: Chilean Exiles Remember Chile

The exile after the military coup of 1973 has been the largest emigration flow in Chilean history. Using oral histories of Chilean exiles collected in the Midwest of the United States as evidence, I describe and analyze their memories of Chile during President Allende’s government and compare them with their memories of recent visits to Chile. I argue that in order to begin recuperating the memory of exile we need to understand the complex relations between the process of exile, the memories of the country of origin, and the nation-state. I conclude this article by proposing that memory not only relates to the remembrance of things past, but also how that remembrance is projected into the present and future as a way of describing the construction of identities, citizenship, and the nation-state. These constructions are a central component of the connections former exiles want to have with the country of origin, including their inclusion in the nation’s history