Collective Memory

Collective Memory: “consists of the memory that a community possesses of its own history, as well as the lessons and learning which it more or less consciously extracts from that memory. This variable includes both the substance of that memory (recall of specific historical events) as well as values associated with their evocation (historical lessons and learning), which are modified, very often, by the vicissitudes of the present.”

-Individual memory and collective memory coexist. Personal experiences cannot diverge from the official history to the extent of an inability to coexist, if political stability is desired. huh? I think I mumbled these words while writing them.

• “Effects of amnesia are necessarily heightened over time.”

A brief synopsis of the two sides and their fears. Victorious fear that a return to party politics, return of exiles, granting of political amnesty would lead to the same chaos, violence, anarchy of before, or that they would have a desire for revenge and demands for justice. On the flip side, Left feared that the Francoists wouldn't cede power so easily, especially with a powerful army at command, and that a coup would be imminent (which they weren't too far off the mark, although it was not a strong coup).

• “Memories, due to the very passing of time, cannot always be maintained by individuals as personal experiences, which is why they end up being stored in social deposits (archives, monuments, museums), in numerous ‘sites of memory’”
-Is this a good reason for taking down Franco and Francoist monuments? As sites of memory, they shape "a tradition prior to the existence of individuals of subsequent historical periods". Which is also why I think Drunk History is such a great show.

Paloma Aguilar, Memory and Amnesia