The Ethnography of the Villa Grimaldi in Pinochet’s Chile: From Public Landscape to Secret Detention Centre (1973-1980)

Abstract

Ethnographic explorations of ideas and changes related to contextual and social landscapes have become ever more central to social methodologies used to study history and social change in Latin America. However, less research on the historical changes affected by societies on the landscape of the urban centres has been attempted, with an over-concentration of research on rural landscapes. This paper explores the changes in the social and cultural landscape of the Peñalolén area of Santiago, Chile, particularly those at the Villa Grimaldi. The Villa Grimaldi represents an important place for social memory as it underwent dramatic changes linked to the ethnography of colonialism/nationalism and, more recently, aesthetic changes related to the history of landscapes, and memories of abduction, torture and disappearance related to the military period of Chilean history.