BOOK PRESENTATION: Comisiones e iniciativas de verdad y memoria en Iberoamérica, edited by Maria Angélica Tamayo Plazas and Juan Sebastián Granada-Cardona
This volume, Comisiones e iniciativas de verdad y memoria en Iberoamérica, appears at a moment of renewed public and academic engagement with truth commissions and other initiatives for historical clarification throughout Latin America. Four decades after the pioneering work of Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), such mechanisms remain central to how societies reckon with the legacies of dictatorship, repression, and political violence. Far from being mere historical exercises, these initiatives are deeply political: they seek to establish narratives about the past that can sustain democratic futures and resist contemporary waves of denialism and revisionism.
The volume brings together ten contributions that analyze experiences from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Spain—countries where the confrontation with state violence and systemic human rights violations has taken diverse institutional and social forms. The chapters explore the evolution of truth commissions, their shifting mandates and methodologies, and the complex relationships they maintain with victims’ organizations, civil society, and state institutions. They also address non-official truth initiatives promoted by communities, NGOs, and universities, emphasizing the plural and contested nature of memory work in Ibero-America.
Through this comparative lens, the book not only documents the historical trajectory of truth-seeking mechanisms but also interrogates their effectiveness and their ethical and political implications. It highlights how these efforts have generated new vocabularies of justice, mourning, and accountability, while also revealing the persistent tensions between official recognition and social reparation. Ultimately, Comisiones e iniciativas de verdad y memoria en Iberoamérica invites readers to reflect on how societies can face “pasts that refuse to pass,” and on the fragile yet vital role that truth, in its many forms, plays in the pursuit of democracy and collective dignity.
El volumen colectivo 'Comisiones e iniciativas de verdad y memoria en Iberoamérica' se presenta en un momento de renovado interés público y académico por las comisiones de la verdad y mecanismos similares en América Latina. Cuatro décadas después de la pionera CONADEP argentina, estas iniciativas continúan configurando los debates sobre memoria, justicia y democracia en sociedades marcadas por el autoritarismo y la violencia. Reuniendo estudios sobre Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México, Perú y España, el libro ofrece una mirada comparativa y crítica sobre cómo distintas sociedades han enfrentado “pasados que se niegan a pasar”, iluminando tanto las posibilidades como los límites de la búsqueda de la verdad como forma de reparación social.
20260731T140020260731T1530America/Argentina/Buenos_AiresBOOK PRESENTATION: Comisiones e iniciativas de verdad y memoria en Iberoamérica, edited by Maria Angélica Tamayo Plazas and Juan Sebastián Granada-CardonaSV402 (ART)MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
