ABSTRACT
Human rights abuses in the context of the “war on drugs” have triggered new debates about commemorative spaces and memorial interventions in Mexico. This interview with Mexican architect Sergio Beltrán-García, whose work has helped to make human rights abuses visible and who calls himself an “architect-activist,” probes the tensions inherent to many grassroots efforts of memorialization in Mexico and beyond. While Beltrán-García's projects often mark the state as a perpetrator of violence, they also frequently rely on state resources to support the creation of new memory spaces. Beltrán-García's reputation and his access to state resources is based on perceptions of expertise which, in turn, can often blur his credibility in activist circles.
Memory debates around state violence and forced disappearances in Mexico have generally been underdeveloped in the absence of a clear democratic transition. However, human rights abuses in the context of the “war on drugs” have triggered new debates about commemorative spaces and memorial interventions. At the core of this discussion is the question of how and why the state, civil society organizations, and families of victims foster the creation of sites of memory for victims of ongoing violence.
Sergio Beltrán-García, a young architect who calls himself an “architect-activist,” is an example of those shaping this debate, theoretically and practically. His work exhibits a tension inherent to many grassroots efforts of memorialization: while Beltrán-García's projects often mark the state as a perpetrator of violence, they also frequently rely on state resources to support the creation of memory spaces. This tension gains particular importance in the Mexican context where the state continues to be both victimizer and a source of reparations. In addition, Beltrán-García's identity as an expert whose reputation and access to state resources is based on perceptions of professionalism can in turn blur his credibility in activist circles.
Despite these tensions, Beltrán-García's work has managed to produce results. Moreover, in the midst of ongoing violence, Beltrán-García's approach has important conceptual ramifications, as his work questions whether commemorative spaces should aim their focus exclusively on past injustices and specific events. Instead, he envisions sites of memory as public forums and as a means to address and overcome structural causes of violence, evoking traumatic pasts while simultaneously restitching the social fabric to actively intervene in the present.
