TESTIMONIOS: The Politics of Memory the Uses and Abuses of Intangible Heritage.

Abstract

This essay takes up the question of testimony in the context of politics and projects of memory from 2002 to 2012. I have dubbed this period 2002-2012 “the decade of memory, of remembrance.” The first decade of the 21st century saw an exponential growth in testimonio collection, focused on catastrophes and conflicts in the previous century as well as more recent events. Public, academic, and institutional initiatives were accompanied by a brief watershed of public support to “recuperate” the memory of the past in Spain and Catalunya. This recovery effort placed oral sources, testimonios, intangible heritage, and memory at the center of contemporary historical efforts. The prominence of testimonio and its uses merits analysis and evaluation.

My essay will begin by analyzing the role of memory in testimonios about the Repubic, the Spanish Civil War, and the first Franco period. I also discuss the roles of associations, memorials, museums, universities, research projects and researchers, that have been the motive forces in generating interviews. The article assesses methodological approaches to testimonio as a practice. I draw examples from the Archive of Democratic Memory, websites, digital formats, and successful and unsuccessful projects. I reflect on the treatment and mistreatment of testimonio as “intangible heritage” by different museums throughout Catalunya and by the Democratic Memory project. I pose several questions: 1) how should we use testimonio to link material heritage to individual memory? 2) how can testimonio be used to better advantage in heritage websites, museums, memory maps, and other treatments? I also explore the potential of thoughtful uses of testimonio in museums and how such narratives are valued in other countries.