Historical studies of violent pasts in Latin America are intrinsically connected to memory studies and, more broadly, to memory politics and memorial cultures. Struggles to explain the construction of the present reflect how societies constantly seek to reinterpret their past, leading to strong political debates and conflicts. The question of how to deal with traumatic past experiences, often related to political violence, has become an issue of great social relevance in many Latin American countries.

This book contributes new insights into this dialectical relationship. Taken together, the collected studies crack or crack national narratives or official memories that have long been hegemonic in Latin America. The authors propose new approaches to recurrent themes in the historiography of the region, while at the same time they discuss current situations that seek to confront the past in Latin America and underline the importance of reflecting on it in order to understand the present and build the future.