Transgenerational Trauma and Memory Transmission: The Role of Social Movements in the Chilean Post-Dictatorship

The political violence provoked by the dictatorship in Chile has had consequences on new generations and the transmission of memory is one of the ways of recognising its effects. Using an approach that integrates the individual, the social and the collective, we investigate how the memory of the political violence provoked by the dictatorship is transmitted. To do so, we analyse qualitative sources including reports, articles and interviews with activists. We show how trauma is transmitted transgenerationally, and how social movements play a crucial role in opening up spaces to rearticulate trauma and re-elaborate family histories, thus facilitating the process of memory transmission. In conclusion, we argue that social movements are a way to study the long-term effects of political violence on generations that did not live through the dictatorship, and that understanding these effects will help to strengthen transitional justice policies.