The words that give the title to this article are taken from a book by the historian José Ãlvarez Junco – Qué hacer con un pasado sucio–, in which he considers the weight of traumatic pasts in the lives of nations, as well as their instrumentalization politics and manipulation in the service of current objectives. And I have chosen this title because I consider that the treatment of a traumatic past is, indeed, very complex.
For this reason, the subject of historical memory has interested me a lot, and not because of a sectarian drive, but because of the will to understand each other and because of my rejection of the frequent and rudely biased use of the past. In addition to the one mentioned, I remember having read three books on the subject: Against memory, by David Rieff; Memory of evil, temptation of good, by Tzvetan Todorov, and Los amnesicos, by Géraldine Schwarz. Expolio all four.
Rieff holds a key idea: that the memory of conflicts can serve three purposes: 1) The truth; 2) Justice (or reparation); 3) Peace (or coexistence). And that the three objectives are laudable separately, but difficult to achieve simultaneously, since it cannot be maintained that doing justice or establishing the truth should take precedence over the search for peace.
Todorov participates in the same idea by saying that the positive or negative effect of the memory must be weighed from the consideration of its consequences for the peace and coexistence of citizens, reason for which it must avoid- it is the “totalitarianism of memory”, based on the sacralization of “one” version of history until it becomes untouchable.
And Géraldine Schwarz refuses both to identify with the victims and to denounce the executioners, because she wants to understand how the tragedy happened and what made it possible for such unspeakable crimes to occur, the people most responsible for which are identifiable and condemnable, but without surface the responsibilities of the rest of the citizens, who with their collaboration or cowardly silence were necessary collaborators in the crimes; reason for which he concludes that only a complex treatment of the past favors the development of democratic and tolerant citizen attitudes.
“So we claim – says Ãlvarez Junco – complex visions of the past, from which multiple political and cultural legacies are derived. (…) If, on the other hand, we create identities that identify with only one side, (this) will cause uncontrolled emotions to be unleashedâ€.
Therefore, undertake the reparation of the damages caused with length and generosity, without ceasing to dig up any victims, to compensate the compensable damages and to avoid the glorification of the victors, but do not try to impose a truth. “Knowing what has happened, imparting justice, reforming institutions, morally and materially reparing the victims (and) evoking them through a commemorative policy, are various aspects of historical memory”, says Ãlvarez Junco.
However, historical memory is only useful if it is not Manichean. You have to remember, but you have to remember well. Therefore, what can never be done is to profit in a sectarian way from the past. It is not acceptable that today’s social and political groups set themselves up as heirs or successors of yesterday’s victims and demand to be recognized and compensated as such. According to Schwarz, a complex and honest treatment of the past favors the development of tolerant and democratic attitudes. But if we generate a memory that identifies with only one side (the loser), this memory will make all rapprochement impossible, since emotional confrontations are insoluble.
A recent example. I assume that the exhumation of José Antonio is convenient, and I even think that he would have accepted it willingly because he was of a generous nature. But the editorial of a newspaper with slander and the beginning of a news program of a public television make me think that much of the perversion of historical memory is found in the biased position of certain media, simple mouthpieces of more discordant matches with each passing day.
