Interrogating the Role of Testimonio amid Violence and Resistance in Central America

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel centers on written and audiovisual testimonies produced in Central America during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The genre of the testimonio developed in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century, as a means of bearing witness to, and raising awareness of militarized violence that occurred in Latin America during the Cold War. The testimonio is a hybrid genre that incorporates elements of literature, autobiography, documentary, historical chronicle, ethnography, and oral history. For this reason, the testimonio has generated discussions regarding questions of authenticity, and the possibility of accessing an objective Truth. Further controversies have arisen regarding the interventions of North American and Western European academics and activists in representing the struggles and suffering of the voiceless. This panel incorporates a diverse selection of testimonios from Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador that were produced inside and outside of these countries during periods of revolution and civil war, and in the post-war era. The selections discussed in this panel include works of literature, journalistic pieces, documentary and feature films, and a collection of children’s drawings from a U.S. solidarity movement working in Central America.

Sub Track

• Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Approaches

Session Organizer

• Stephanie N Aubry, Ohio State University

Chair

• Mirela Butnaru, Denison University

Individual Presentations

• El testimonio desde la mirada infantil. Estrategias narrativas en Princesas Rojas - Amanda Alfaro Córdoba, University College London

• Hacia una búsqueda de la verdad a través del meta-testimonio - Mirela Butnaru, Denison University

• Evolución estética del testigo en dos novelas de la violencia de Rodrigo Rey Rosa - Yolany E Martínez Hyde, University of Oklahoma

• Interpretive Conflicts in Solidarity Activism: Documenting the Children’s Drawings of the Columbus-Copapayo Sister Cities Project - Stephanie N Aubry, Ohio State University

• Discursos y testimonios de la contra revisitados: El ejército de campesinos que no luchó por la tierra - Guillermo J Fernández Ampié, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Discussant

• Nicasio Urbina, University of Cincinnati