Pinochet’s monument: the Altar of the Fatherland as difficult heritage in the civic Quarter of Santiago, Chile (2003–2006)

Autor/es

Valentina Infante Batiste

Macarena Ibarra, Pedro Rolle

Resumen

Even though we recognise that all heritage carries inherent complexities, this article draws on the concept of ‘difficult heritage’ to examine the case of the Altar of the Fatherland. This monumental complex was created in the early years of the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990) to commemorate the coup d’état of 11 September 1973 and to underscore the parallels between Augusto Pinochet and Bernardo O’Higgins, the hero of Chile’s independence process. Based on an extensive review of national press published between 2003 and 2006, the article analyses the moment when Chilean society began to question the Altar of the Fatherland, particularly one of its most striking elements: the Eternal Flame of Freedom. In the context of shifts in Chile’s social and political landscape, the article argues that the Altar of the Fatherland emerged as a form of difficult heritage in the early 2000s. Moreover, it suggests that the political class chose to manage the ‘difficulty’ of this heritage by blurring the Altar’s explicit connections to Pinochet and to the dictatorship. This process sheds light on how the transition from dictatorship to democracy also gave rise to difficult monuments, coinciding with changing notions of patria (fatherland) and heritage.