Borrar

Central to the chapter “A Lexicon of Terror” is the insidious use of language during the Dirty War to erase the individual. Feitowitz explores this on a scale that begins at rhetoric directed to the entire nation and ends at psychologically intrusive language which undermined torture victims.

Below is how I observed her narrowing the scope of the chapter from the erasure of the individual within the nation to the erasure of the self within the body.

1) Defining the nation without individuals
As Feitowitz says, references to “el ser nacional” were repeatedly made throughout the regime. This expression implies the dissolving of discrete citizens with personal agendas into a body with an indivisible essence and single purpose. The Process terminated all platforms of independent political activity and the need for “subordination” to authority was constantly reinforced. In the metaphor of nation as body, the junta was the grey matter, and the citizens undifferentiated body cells, except for the tumors of resistance which necessitated quick and efficient destruction. Any person who did not agree with the junta was committing an act of self-mutilation on the collective body – was morally and spiritually sick – insane. Independent thought could be construed as a private war against Argentina.

2) Controlling the identity of the disappeared
Erasure of individuals also occurred when the disappeared were unidentified, slandered, or completely denied existence in public address and the media. As Feitowitz says, the names of “subversives” were almost never given in newspapers. They were commonly portrayed as demons and criminals – it was even suggested that they were selfish sons and daughters who had run off to pursue their own interests at the expense of their families. The official attitude of the junta, especially when confronted with the questions of foreign governments and journalists, was to completely deny the existence of political prisoners.

3) Manipulating public awareness and familial trust
Pervasive doublespeak confused public knowledge about what was happening on a national as well as interpersonal level. “They had so may ways,” as José Bendersky said, “of erasing people, of trying to make you doubt the truth of your own life.” As Feitowitz describes, all mediums of spoken and written word were employed in fabricating a entirely false version of reality, assaulting Argentine eyes and ears on a daily basis. The media planted seeds of doubt and suspicion amongst family members – and tried to shake mothers’ confidence in their ability to raise children.

4) Physical and psychological annihilation of victims
The term “desaparecido” not only negates that individual (we don’t know their location, living or dead, if leaving was their own choice) but also the person who was responsible for this (as if that individual was not kidnapped or killed but vanished through some fault of their own). The physical bodies of victims were nothing but refuse – dumped at sea, burned, and piled into mass graves marked with “no name” – and the torturers tirelessly attempted to erase their sense of self – with hoods for sensory isolation, replacement of names with numbers, and extreme physical pain. Repeated constantly were the words “You don’t exist.”

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