Reviewed by: Holocaust Consciousness and Cold War Violence in Latin America by Estelle Tarica Cara Levey Tarica, Estelle. Holocaust Consciousness and Cold War Violence in Latin America. State U of New York P, 2022, pp. 300. ISBN: 9781438487946. This ambitious study fills a significant gap in the literature on both the Cold War era in Latin America and Holocaust Studies. Drawing on examples from Argentina, [End Page 163] Mexico and Guatemala, Tarica argues that there is framing, rearticulation and iteration of Holocaust Memory across Latin America, responding to some of the passing, and occasionally lazy, comparisons that frequent contrasting contexts of extreme violence. Indeed, in Latin America, recourse to the Holocaust as a paradigmatic case of extreme violence, became evident, as authoritarian violence escalated during the latter half of the twentieth century. Central to the book's focus, and outlined in the introductory chapter, is the identification of Holocaust consciousness in Latin America. This allows the author to frame Holocaust memory in Argentina, Mexico and Guatemala not as simply transposition, but as an authentic and distinct regional iteration that involves construction and agency. This is a welcome shift away from viewing Latin America as passive recipient of Anglophone or European-dominated work on memory, in showcasing multiple intersections between the Holocaust, recent authoritarianism, dictatorship, civil war and longer historical trajectories of revolutionary movements and anti-colonialism. Although Tarica incorporates contrasting vehicles of memory such as periodicals, literary works etc, into her framework, testimony often takes centre stage. This is, in part, because of its significance in the aftermath of the Holocaust. However, the genre of testimonio has its own distinct history in Latin America, that dovetails with the denial of state violence in the Cold War era. Although the focus of Tarica's volume is overwhelmingly literary, the prominence of the testimonial permits engagement with wider debates about perpetration, criminal responsibility, and, significantly, victimhood. It is the latter that is the most problematic when discussing Holocaust consciousness in Latin America. Tarica rightly anticipates this, pointing out that if we view the victims of state violence in Latin America as passive, we risk depoliticising what was, for many, a political struggle against authority. Such sensitive analysis allows us to reflect on what European and Anglophone scholars of Holocaust Memory may learn from Latin America as part of a truly multidirectional deepening of memory. The five substantive chapters give space to voices from three contrasting contexts, that are not explored in isolation, but in relation to one another and against a backdrop of transnationalism. They are not deemed representative of the entire region, but there are enough differences between the various case studies, to make the author's aim of identifying and tracing a Holocaust consciousness as a counterpoint to European and North American-dominated narratives. Argentina, the focus of Chapters 1 and 2, is an obvious starting point because of the long-standing debates about Holocaust discourse. This is, in part, because of its significant Jewish population, but also its simultaneous status as site of refuge for Holocaust perpetrators. Tarica deepens our understanding of Holocaust consciousness during the 1976-83 dictatorship, the focus of Chapter 1, demonstrating its presence among Jewish and non-Jewish Argentine communities. In Chapter 2, she moves beyond the temporal parameters of dictatorship to explore the post-1995 memory 'boom,' a period in which the Holocaust has loomed more frequently in debates over the recent past. In particular, we see how discussions in Argentine periodicals have drawn on the Holocaust to critique dominant memory narratives. The intensity of these debates reveals that Holocaust consciousness and how it is used [End Page 164] remains contentious, entangled with political narratives. Recontextualisation does not equal depoliticisation. Chapter 3 does not move away entirely from the Southern Cone, but explores the connections between Argentina, Mexico and the Holocaust through the Argentine exile community in Mexico City. Here, exiles used the Holocaust example to press the urgency of violations, not only in their homeland, but in 1970s Mexico. Testimony, in the work of writers such as José Emilio Pacheco and Tununa Mercado, as well as in interviews conducted by the latter with Holocaust survivors, is thus reconsidered as a means to denounce...
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Oct 16, 2024
Ayesha Ahmed 
Open Access