Before, During, After: Difficulties and Controversies in Fieldwork with Retired Officers from the Argentine Army

Abstract

Between 2004 and 2007, I conducted fieldwork to analyze the memories and commemorative practices of retired officers of the Argentine Army, who were on active duty during the state terrorism executed by the armed forces during the military dictatorship (1976-1983) in Argentina. I conducted a series of open and semi-structured interviews with officers who participated in Operation Independence (Operativo Independencia) in Tucumán Province and made observations during public events in military churches and military clubs that paid tribute to officers who were assassinated by nonstate armed organizations during the 1970s. This ethnographic methodology has allowed me, first, to address the manifestations of the past as constructed, staged, and transmitted by the retired officers; second, to identify the meanings and values that these officers evoke to justify state terrorism; and third, how they constructed a retrospective relationship with violence and dealt with the criticisms they received from society. The aim of this article is to highlight the vicissitudes, difficulties, and controversies that framed my fieldwork with retired officers of the Argentine Army at three moments: before, when I was designing the methodology to delve into the military world; during, when I established contact and conducted the interviews with retired officers; and after, when I presented the results of my work on their memories to colleagues in academia. In sum, the article reflects on the conditions for the production of knowledge about perpetrators in Argentina. I explore the problems related to understanding the memories of the officers and interpreting their words: both what is said and what remains unsaid in the interviews, and how this can contribute to knowledge about processes of mass violence based on the memories of the perpetrators.