4 Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004)
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Roberto Vélez-Vélez
Abstract
In 2004 the community of Vieques, Puerto Rico succeed in closing a US naval station, ending more than 60 years of military presence in the municipal island. At the center of this resistance process, the Vieques Movement deployed narratives revisiting the experiences of dread, fear, and violence that accompanied over three decades of bombardment and war games, memories of trauma. This chapter seeks to bridge the gap between the narratives that social movements created to frame mobilization, and notions of the past that allow for the elicitation of action. Using an approach focused on remembrance structures termed mnemonic signifiers, the analysis looks at how mobilization narratives were attributed meaning by linking them to personal and collective memories. Instead of assuming that social movements approach representations of the past as fixed frames, the chapter examines the signifying power that personal experiences of historic events render to social movement processes.
Abstract
In 2004 the community of Vieques, Puerto Rico succeed in closing a US naval station, ending more than 60 years of military presence in the municipal island. At the center of this resistance process, the Vieques Movement deployed narratives revisiting the experiences of dread, fear, and violence that accompanied over three decades of bombardment and war games, memories of trauma. This chapter seeks to bridge the gap between the narratives that social movements created to frame mobilization, and notions of the past that allow for the elicitation of action. Using an approach focused on remembrance structures termed mnemonic signifiers, the analysis looks at how mobilization narratives were attributed meaning by linking them to personal and collective memories. Instead of assuming that social movements approach representations of the past as fixed frames, the chapter examines the signifying power that personal experiences of historic events render to social movement processes.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
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Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
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Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
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Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
-
Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
-
Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
-
Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
