Notes on Argentina (IV): Commemmorating the Malvinas War

I've already commented recenly on the 25th anniversary of the Malvinas War, so it was interesting (although purely accidental) when I stumbled upon the Malvinas memorial in Buenos Aires, providing me the chance to see the way in which the Argentine military and/or state commemmorated the war.

The memorial itself was simple and patriotic, solely emphasizing the dead in the war. The memorial is literally a wall, about 25-30 feet wide, with the names of the 649 Argentine men who died fighting in the war. Also, near the wall, is the symbol of every state in Argentina, as well as a bronze image of the two islands and an eternal torch towering over it all. It seemed to be taking a sort of "Vietnam Wall" approach, not drawing too much attention to itself and trying to let the names speak for themselves. Of course, keeping politics out of the memorial was rather important - I don't know if it was a military or a political initiative, but given that the war marked the final death rattle of Argentina's military dictatorship, a government that killed as many as 30,000 of its own citizens, it's not surprising that the memorial does not commemmorate the Malvinas War's place in the broader national narrative in the way that, say, the World War II Memorial in Brazil does. Additionally, such an approach allowed those who supported the war to be able to commemmorate it without also commemmorating the military dictatorship. Overall, it was interesting to see how Argentina tried to commemmorate what was one of its higher "patriotic" moments in its last 50 years of history without trying to also memorialize the murderous military state that launched the same war.