ABSTRACT
In a region in which military regimes tortured, murdered, and massacred people in the last third of the twentieth century, violent pasts often cast a dark hue over oral history research and scholarship. Adept at denouncing human rights abuses through oral history, Mexican scholars Eugenia Meyer and Elena Poniatowska also have used the method to capture survivors' perspectives of the 1985 earthquake that devastated Mexico City. By addressing methodological and interpretive issues, this chapter examines the interdisciplinary practice and scholarship of oral history in Latin America. While topical oral history generally seeks to understand a theme or particular event, oral life history is intended to understand how individuals influenced and were influenced by events over the course of their lifetimes. Social scientists often use oral history techniques to access another variant of oral history called oral testimony. The archaeological record provides evidence of oral history and oral tradition in the Americas.
