Abstract

Military dictatorship was a too common feature of Argentine politics for much of the twentieth century. The most recent dictatorship (1976-1983) led by General Videla saw the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 Argentines. In the preceding decade, Argentina had been crippled by a civil war that raged between violent, Cuba-inspired guerrillas and the military. It was in this violent context that Argentine rock music, the best of which was called rock nacional , appeared. Inspired by international rockers like The Beatles and by international student politics such as was seen in Paris in 1968, Argentina's first rockers were at once eager participants in an international rock scene and strident resistors to local violence. From 1965 to 1983, rock nacional went from being a subculture to mass culture. Imprinted in its history and in its most popular hits of that period are references to the violence that pervaded Argentine culture. When dictatorship ended in 1983, Argentines turned to its atrophied judicial system to address the war crimes perpetrated in the previous seven years. However, with the military still a powerful force, 1980s governments bowed to military pressure and legislated impunity laws that destroyed any hopes of judicial retribution. Over a decade after the end of military rule, Argentines in the 1990s sought new means of atonement in commemoration. With anniversaries of the coup coinciding with anniversaries of the first recordings of rock music, and with original rockeros like Charly García and León Gieco still garnering mass audiences, human rights organizations like Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and Argentine governments turned to rockeros to animate memory of the dictatorship era. The symbiosis developed between rockeros, Las Madres and Argentine politicians has enabled a commemoration of the Dirty War which recalls only those who suffered at the hands of the military. Ignored in this commemoration are the systemic causes which led to the coup in the first place, guerrilla terrorism, and the uncomfortable fact that many Argentines benefited from the Dirty War era. This study of rock nacional and memory of dictatorship highlights the partisan selections that are being made and illustrates the problems with current commemorative projects in Argentina