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Identidad, memoria y la búsqueda del padre desaparecido desde la óptica de dos cineastas guatemaltecos

2024; Volume: 1; Issue: 33 Linguagem: Inglês

10.15359/istmica.33.7

2215-471X

Ana Yolanda Contreras,

Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America

This article explores two Guatemalan films, Polvo [Dust] (2012) and Nuestras madres [Our Mothers] (2019), directed by Julio Hernández Cordón and César Díaz respectively. Both feature films denounce the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the dictatorship during the past Guatemalan armed conflict, as well as portray the search for disappeared parents or relatives and the consequences experienced by the victims. Therefore, the analysis centers on the children’s struggle to find their missing fathers to avoid living in an identity vacuum and to find closure to their long-standing suffering. On the other hand, this paper also analyzes the trauma and silence observed by the surviving mothers as a remnant of the fear/terror experienced by these women during the armed conflict. Moreover, this silence functions as a protection mechanism for their children. The analysis is theoretically supported by the extensive work carried out by the Uruguayan sociologist Gabriel Gatti on forced disappearance.