Situating memory(ies) and promoting public pedagogy in Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma

Abstract

Recently Chile has undergone significant socio-economic and geopolitical changes following efforts to forge sustainable pathways challenging disparities in power and wealth in the country. In 2006 secondary-school students launched the Penguin Revolution to protest inequalities in the educational system resulting from policies implemented during and after Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) and to critique the cause of economic differences that allowed the wealthy to prosper and marginalized the poor. This article explores the contributions of the novel Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma (2014) to the memory-building exercise undertaken by the Penguin Revolution, situating it in the context of memory activism over the last thirty years. Furthermore, it examines the novel’s promotion of public pedagogy in the context of its production, aligning it with the goals of the Penguin Revolution and argues that it is the polyphonic narrative and intermedial storytelling process that facilitate the novel’s socio-historical contributions.