The Case of Laja and San Rosendo: The Use of Archives in the Narrative of Human Rights Violations in Documentary Film and Investigative Journalism

Abstract

This article analyzes and compares the use of files on human rights violations during the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990) in the construction of the story of the book-reportage A la sombra de los cuervos by Javier Rebolledo (2016) and the documentary Las cruces of Teresa Arredondo and Carlos Vásquez Méndez (2019). Both works deal with the case known as “La masacre de Laja y San Rosendo” in which, in October 1973, nineteen workers from the rural area were murdered by the police, with the complicity of the private company, the collaboration of civilians and the subsequent omission and negligence of justice. The analysis focuses on the archive-operations that both cultural productions carry out with the aim of building a true and coherent account of the events. The review of both the different types of archives, its origin, materiality, exhaustiveness in use and in general its narrative function in each of the works, gives an account of the type of operation this device performs in the different stories of the present about a past in constant dispute and marked by omissions and the absence of truth and justice.