A couple of weeks ago, María Luisa Ortiz, the Head of Collections of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, contacted me to ask if I would like to send a brief recorded message to help mark the 10th birthday of the Museum. We’ve been working together, along with her colleague Walter Robledo, for about four years now, on my Chilean Refugee project. I’ve been collecting evidence of the experience of exile for Chileans who fled to the UK following the ferocious coup d’état in 1973 which brought the cruel Pinochet Regime to power. Of course I was delighted to send my good wishes. It has been a pleasure to work with the Museum, and to be able to bring the exile experience back home, to the very institution which lies at the heart of Chilean memory work.

The Museum’s mission is to ensure that the violations of human rights which occurred under the Pinochet Regime are not forgotten, and are truthfully remembered. There were 3225 disappeared and murdered victims, and an enormous number of people who fled into exile. It’s impossible to know accurately, but perhaps up to 200,000 Chileans were forced to leave because of fear, political repression and torture, or because of the harsh economic conditions which the neoliberal policies of the Regime introduced.

Drawing on the collections of Warwick’s Modern Records Centre, and in collaboration with Liz Wood, one of the archivists there, I recently arranged the deposit of a selection of digitized documents detailing the UK’s enormous support for Chilean refugees. You can explore them here, whether it’s reading the annual reports of World University Service, which coordinated the formal refugee support, or trades union reports on the unfolding situation, or seeing posters for solidarity events and even a boycott of Chilean wine. I like to see it as a sort of 10th birthday present for the Museum: enjoy!

Prof. Alison Ribeiro de Menezes (Hispanic Studies)