ABSTRACT
In light of the co-constructed nature of oral histories and the ways language, performance, translation, and memory can distort them, interpreting historical narratives is both exhilarating and daunting. Within any narrative pattern, contradictory portrayals cast a dark hue on central themes, thereby complicating the telling and interpretation. Firmly grounded in sophisticated studies of memory, silence, subjectivity, and identity, Latin American oral history scholarship provides incisive interpretations. Despite the vagaries and flaws of memory production, archival sources frequently substantiate historical memories. New information shifts memory's interpretations and recollections. Problematizing memory is crucial to scholars' contextualization and analysis of dramatically different historical perspectives. According to the justices, amnesia threatened to make the nation susceptible to future horrors; memory was the antidote. Creating memory involves creating silence.
