“To Live with Honor, or Die”: The Metamorphosis of Place, National Symbols, Masculinities, and Practices under State Terrorism (1973-1990)

Abstract

This article explores the value of urban history and material culture in the study of memory. More specifically, it offers an examination through a masculine lens of the ways in which urban icons have impacted and shaped individual and national identities. The article focuses on Bulnes Square in Santiago de Chile and the Eternal Flame of Liberty as a key place and symbol of Augusto Pinochet’s “fascism in progress.” I draw on local press archives, advertising, and photographs to further explore the gender metaphor of state and nation as expressions of monolithic nationalism and their perpetuation of a hypermasculine tone, examining their links to place and national memory construction.