A feminist reading of sites of commemoration in Peru

Abstract

This chapter presents three arguments based on a close feminist reading. The arguments are: the memory museum in the town of Huamanga, set up and managed by the family members of the disappeared; the memorialisation of national martyr Maria Elena Moyano, who was murdered in 1992 by Shining Path in Villa El Salvador; and the portrayal of sexual violence in the largest and most controversial of memory museums in Lima, Peru, the Lugar de la Memoria. The chapter looks at sites of commemoration in Peru through a feminist lens. The internal armed conflict in Peru was started by Shining Path aiming to overthrow the state. During the internal armed conflict, sexual violence against both women and men became part of routine torture practices. Observers have commented on the gendered nature of women deploying motherhood as a political identity in the Latin American public sphere.