Things, Evidence, Clues: Remains of the Armed Conflict in El Salvador

Abstract

Drawing on the context of immunity and oblivion in El Salvador following the civil war (1980-1992), the present work intends to investigate the meaning and the function of material remains, by using the notion of trace as the presentification of a history that is past and yet still in force. While this work focuses on remains (bones, clothes, toys) that are juridical evidence, in addition to their juridical function it will also examine another function – one that involves affect, mourning, reparation. The article starts by providing a short but necessary historical synopsis that connects the 1932 repression with the “tierra arrasada” strategy in the 1980s, during the war. It then moves on to examine different types of material remains, ranging from oral and written testimonies, to works of art, performance, narrative and photography inhabited by past traumas and present concerns. The aim of the article is to explore the ways in which the evocation of material remains enables access to and understanding of the past in the light of a memory that is meant to be both a dynamic process and a project for different political and cultural relations.