This book proposes the existence of a recognizably distinct Holocaust consciousness in Latin America since the 1970s. Community leaders, intellectuals, writers, and political activists facing state repression have seen themselves reflected in Holocaust histories and have used Holocaust terms to describe human rights atrocities in their own countries. In so doing, they have developed a unique, controversial approach to the memory of the Holocaust that is little known outside the region. Estelle Tarica deepens our understanding of Holocaust awareness in a global context by examining diverse Jewish and non-Jewish voices, focusing on Argentina, Mexico, and Guatemala. What happens, she asks, when we find the Holocaust invoked in unexpected places and in relation to other events, such as the Argentine "Dirty War" or the Mayan genocide in Guatemala? The book draws on meticulous research in two areas that have rarely been brought into contact-Holocaust Studies and Latin American Studies-and aims to illuminate the topic for readers who may be new to the fields.
Author(s): Estelle Tarica
Series: SUNY Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture
Publisher: SUNY Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 311
City: Albany
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The “Latin Americanization” of the Holocaust
Latin American Holocaust Consciousness— Comparative, Paradigmatic, Political
Latin American Holocaust Consciousness in Global Perspective
Holocaust Comparisons and the Shadow of Denialism
Latin Americanism after Eichmann: Cold War Victims and Holocaust Victims
Structure of the Book
Chapter One: The Demands of the Times: Jewish Holocaust Discourse in Dictatorship and Early-Transition Argentina, 1976–1985
1976–1979: Sounding the Alarm
Jacobo Timerman and “Anti-Semitism without Soap”
The DAIA’s Response: Never Again “Jews of Silence”
Progressive Jewish Voices—“Isms” beyond Judaism
Marshall Meyer and Jewish Human Rights
1981–1985: The Holocaust in the Early Transitional Years
Victims and Heroes
Conclusion
Chapter Two: Holocaust Consciousness as Critical Consciousness in Post-dictatorship Argentina, 1995–2005
Human Rights and the Holocaust in Argentina
Sarlo, Shoah, and the Critique of the Testimonial “I”
Vezzetti and the Problem of the Victim in Argentina
Confines 1995–1998: Do Not Forget the Forgotten
Conclusion
Chapter Three: José Emilio Pacheco, Tununa Mercado, and Holocaust Testimony at the Mexico-Argentina Crossroads
Pacheco, the Holocaust, and the Memory of 1968
Metafictional Destabilizations in Morirás lejos
Pacheco on Industrial Modernity and Global Complicity in the Vietnam Era
Testimony Insists: The Changes from 1967 to 1977
The Memory Imperative Post-1968
Tununa Mercado: Solidarity and the Testimonial Situation
Mexico as Political Refuge
1975: Four Holocaust Testimonies
The Politics of Survivor Testimonies
Conclusion
Chapter Four: Demetrio Cojtí Cuxil’s “Maya Holocaust”: Victims and Vanquished in Post-genocide Guatemala
Victims and Vanquished in Cold War Historiography
The “Maya Holocaust” under Debate
The Complex Textual History of the “Maya Holocaust”
The Semantics of Genocide, Holocaust, Conquest
Conclusion
Chapter Five: Holocaust Testimony and Maya Testimony between the U.S. and Guatemala
Revisiting Stoll-Menchú: Holocaust Testimony and “Nontransparent Truths”
The Shoah-FAFG Testimonies
Conclusion
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
