I was asked to write the story of "Crowds in the Shadows," a photographic exhibit recalling the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile from 1973 to 1990. The exhibit is for the Museo de la Memoria in Santiago, Chile, but is due to be on display at the National Civil Rights Museum in May of 2009.
My piece tells the story of Marcia Scantlebury Elizalde, the director of the Museo de la Memoria, and a political prisoner under Pinochet. I interviewed Ms. Scantlebury with the aid of translator Juan Fuentes, who was instrumental, not just with the writing of this story, but understanding the climate of Chile at the time of the coup.
There is not a modern country whose civilized exterior doesn't shroud a grotesque history of uncivilized behavior between oppressor and oppressed. But if a country's people are its heart, and culture its soul, then its government and institutions should reflect its conscience. Chile's Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) will do just that ...
