Submitted by Kaleigh Wieand on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Chile sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures…
As you walk through the front doors of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, a somber quiet falls over you. It is a holy place, a cemetery of sorts; a memorial to all those who were victims of political warfare. As you walk through those doors, you are forced to face reality head-on: hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been murdered, hundreds of thousands of families ripped apart, all for what? For one man to satisfy a power fantasy? You contemplate how one person could desire such chaos as you read summary reports of the actions of these same men. Reports of how many people are thought to have been victims of their reign, how many countries have been affected by their greed, how many histories were forever marred by their crimes. But this place, this cemetery focuses on the innocent victims of only one of these men: Pinochet.
Climbing the stairs of the 3-floored building takes you through the dictatorship of Pinochet, starting with the coup d’etat of September 11, 1973 and ending with the lasting effects of his time in power and the continued fight for justice. The museum humanizes these atrocities that occurred in Chile, puts faces and names to the empty statistics. It gives a new perspective to the events of those years. Instead of seeing dates and percentages, you see letters written by children to their wrongfully imprisoned parents; you see video of survivors recounting the torture they experienced; you see hundreds upon hundreds of photos of the dead with empty spaces left for those who have yet to be found. And then, in a small illuminated box on the second floor, you see the simple question that ushered in a new democratic era and decided the course of Chilean history: “Augusto Pinochet Ugarte: Yes or No.”
Walking through the third floor and reflecting upon the ramifications of Pinochet’s regime, I kept finding myself coming back to the role of the United States. Many dictators that are still in power today are there with the help of the United States, and it is very likely that the reign of Pinochet would not have been the same if not for our involvement. We have manipulated the governments and political structures of so many countries for nothing, but personal gain. But I never learned of this in school. I was never taught of the CIA’s involvement in the Chilean coup d’etat. My teachers never explained the lengths to which our government will go to facilitate the military-industrial complex. I could not help, but feel guilty for my ignorance as I absorbed all the knowledge placed before me. I wondered what other secrets lay in the great unknown, waiting to be uncovered by blissfully unaware eyes.
As you walk out the doors of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, the somber quiet stays with you. You feel uncomfortable in your own skin, and continuing with your day seems wrong and inappropriate. As you walk out those doors, you are forced to face reality head-on: hundreds of thousands of people are still being murdered, hundreds of thousands of families are still being ripped apart, all for what?