ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the book’s foundation. It begins with a vignette from the march we joined to the historic Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires on March 24, 2016, an official national public holiday since 2006, known as the Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia (Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice). After providing context for the three focal sites and locating ourselves in this project, we outline the framework of commemorative literacies for justice. We define key terms that guide our analysis—literacy, memory, space, and justice—before laying out the book’s three main arguments that commemorative literacies 1) mobilize memories of the past to advance present-day concerns amidst perceived crises; 2) work spatially to advance different labors of justice; and 3) address historical injustices in ways that have transnational implications.
