In recent decades, Argentine historiography has examined the process of constructing social memory and the public uses of history. These studies have focused on political rituals, commemorations, anniversaries, tributes, monuments, and museum and archive collections. They have also looked at the media that popularize and normalize these narratives, such as textbooks. This panel is part of that growing field of study, examining how certain historical figures and events have been appropriated and shaped over different periods and by various traditions. The goal of the panel is to show how narratives of the past are constructed over time. The panel will discuss figures who occupy an official place in history or hold a high position within a particular political memory, as well as those who belong to traditions or communities that are not as prominent. It will also address an exceptional date, that is, a particular year which in turn served as a foundation and reference point for the consecration of utopian imagination and radical and revolutionary transformation. It is well known that certain figures—such as heroes, founding fathers, and leaders—and specific dates and events are the essential building blocks for historical narratives and serve as anchors for social memory and identity. They act as focal points that provide meaning and structure to historical accounts. Their presentation to the public is not static or uniform; it is connected to current events, the needs of the moment, and the people who invoke them. The panel aims to explain how these changes occur by addressing the processes involved in embedding a figure or particular events into a specific narrative. Therefore, the panel will include studies of different figures and historical moments that have not been addressed in this way before.
Magdalena Candioti, CONICET/Instituto Ravignani/FHUC/UNL - "María Remedios del Valle: From Enslaved Woman to Mother of the Fatherland"
This paper traces the life and historical construction of María Remedios del Valle, an enslaved Afro descendant woman who became a crucial yet contested figure in Argentina’s revolutionary memory. By examining primary documentary evidence—her own petitions and military testimonies—alongside historiographical interventions, the work reveals how national memory simultaneously acknowledges and disregards the contributions of women of color to national formation. Born around 1767 1768 in Buenos Aires, María Remedios transformed her condition from enslaved to free woman and active participant in the wars of independence. Beyond performing the feminized labor of care that defined most women’s war contributions, she served as a soldier, spy, and strategist, receiving recognition as “captain”. Yet post independence, she faced poverty, so asked for a pension as entitled to the “right to the Argentine gratitude”. The analysis of her surviving petitions (1826 1828) demonstrates her sophisticated political consciousness and strategic navigation of gender and racial hierarchies. When officials questioned her military credentials, María Remedios strategically shifted her narrative from that of a proud soldier to that of a suffering woman drawing gendered expectations to gain material recognition. The paper further examines how subsequent historiography, particularly the narratives by the nationalist historian Carlos Ibarguren (1930s) and Jacinto Yaben (1940s), reconstructed her memory, replacing her agency with a story of “rescue” by male military figures. This historiographical erasure echoes in contemporary debates over national memory. The state’s recent designation of November 8 alleged date of her passing as the Day of Afro Argentines and Afro Culture (2013), and the contested (even precarious and vandalized) public monument to María Remedios, reveals ongoing struggles over whose stories constitute national history and on which terms can a Black figure be
Ana Trucco Dalmas - CeDInCI / Universidad Nacional de San Martín - "The indomitable memory of '73. The lost traces of a revolution that never was"
Between the escape from Rawson prison on 15 August 1972 and the Ezeiza Massacre on 20 June 1973, one of the most important moments of rebellion in 20th-century Argentina took place. This exceptional historical moment was forged in the heat of important political events that had a profound social and cultural resonance: the Trelew Massacre, the first return of Juan Domingo Perón, the electoral victory of Héctor Cámpora and his subsequent presidential inauguration, the release of political prisoners from Devoto Prison, and the takeover of neighborhoods, hospitals and schools in June 1973, among many others. This very long list of events and scenes make up the fabric of the historical significance of Argentina in 1973, which, in turn, served as a foundation and reference point for the consecration of utopian imagination and radical and revolutionary transformation.
For a very significant part of Argentine society, the series of events and scenes that punctuated the historical unfolding of Argentina in 1973 left a lasting mark on their memory and were, at the same time, the subject of debate and historiographical review for most historians specialized in the period.
In light of these considerations, this paper has two objectives: to reconstruct the chronology of the series of events that made 1973 a historic sign of an interrupted, closed revolution; and to observe some traces and indications of its memorial impact on the construction of political meanings in different youth organisations that supported the progressive policies of the Kirchnerist governments (2003-2015). This perspective, which unfolds in two stages, will allow us to reflect on the uniqueness of the historical ‘event’ and its powerful memorial and political effects.
Flavia Fiorucci - CONICET / Centro de Historia Intelectual – Universidad Nacional de Quilmes- "Sarmiento: a heroe with many meanings "
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888) was a distinguished politician, educator, and writer who served as President of Argentina. His presidency is associated with the historical administrations that consolidated the national organization. Since the 19th century, he has held an important place in the national pantheon. His status as a national hero was the result of various actions carried out by many different people in diverse ways, which ultimately placed him on the "altar of the nation." These actions began even before his death and continue to this day. Sarmiento is also a controversial figure whose legacy has been consistently questioned. This paper will analyse how the state invoked Sarmiento at different times and situations to legitimize opposing policies. We will focus on the commemorations and speeches given on the day dedicated to his remembrance (the date of his death) in a series of particularly intense moments in which these events occurred in contexts of great political conflict. Specifically, we will focus on the use of Sarmiento during Peronism; the dictatorship in the 1970s and during Alfonsín´s government. The paper aims to show how Sarmiento has served as a banner for different sectors, both the ruling party and the opposition. He has been interpreted with positive and negative connotations; he has been raised as a symbol of secular education, but a Catholic Sarmiento was also constructed by appealing to his private faith. Alfonsín elevated him as an emblem of democracy, but before that, the military junta used him to justify its repressive policies.
Laura Ehrlich CONICET / Centro de Historia Intelectual – Universidad Nacional de Quilmes "New meanings of the commemoration of Eva Perón"
With a long history dating back to the early years after her death on July 26, 1952, followed by a massive funeral that bid her farewell, the commemoration and appropriation of Eva Perón’s figure have acquired, over the last decade or so, since the 60th anniversary of her death in 2012, a renewed dynamism that calls for analysis and interpretation. This presentation will show how the state's impetus, a variety of artistic expressions, and the recovery by a new wave of feminism converged to relocate the memory of Eva Perón to an increasingly central place in the contemporary Argentine imagination. In 2012, the portrait of the female leader of Peronism replaced that of Julio A. Roca on the 100 Argentine peso bill, in a clear demonstration of the government's attempt to associate her figure with national symbols. Through a similar impulse, Evita also became a symbol of the country through large scale artistic installations with outstanding international projection, such as the mural portraits by Alejandro Marmo and Daniel Santoro on the building that housed the Ministry of Social Development, and the installation by Nicola Costantino, which represented Argentina at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The state initiative of both administrations of Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernández is thus an unavoidable factor in understanding the magnitude of contemporary memory of Eva Perón. Other manifestations of political art, such as the street interventions by the so called Comando Evita since 2019, have joined in to commemorate the centenary of her birth and other events related to her. These performances, with their freshness and connection to the feminist and youth mass mobilization of those years, display a picture
20260730T140020260730T1530America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires6.14. National Figures and dates and the Construction of Social Memory in ArgentinaSV406 (ART)MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
