Katia Chornik: ‘Music and Human Rights Liaisons in Chile’

Here you can listen to the audio of the talk given by Dr Katia Chornik (Manchester) entitled ‘Music and Human Rights Liaisons: Interviewing Álvaro Corbalán, a Singer-Songwriter and Top Agent of Pinochet’s Secret Police’.

Here is an abstract of her talk:

In February 2010, Álvaro Corbalán was awarded a gaviota de plata (silver seagull) by the International Song Contest of Viña del Mar (Chile), the most important popular music competition in the Spanish-speaking world. This accolade was not, however, granted for his musical talents but “for having defeated Marxism terrorism in Chile”, as the inscription reads. Corbalán was in fact a top agent of the CNI, one of the secret services operating during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990), and as such ran a clandestine torture centre known for its heavy manipulations of prisoners’ acoustic environment. Convicted of innumerable crimes, Corbalán serves a life sentence. Using my interview material and drawing on research in popular music and memory studies, I explore Corbalán’s elusive recollections of Pinochet’s prisons, and the ways in which he makes sense of his own detention through his musical compositions.

The talk was given on Wednesday 3 February as part of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Seminar Series.

‘Remembering Cold War States of Exception in Recent Latin American and Asian Documentary Film’

Talk given on 15 April by Professor David Martin-Jones (Glasgow), as part of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Seminar Series: ‘Latin America: The Potential of the Global South?’.
Discussants: Heather Inwood (Manchester) and Felicia Chan (Manchester)

Professor Vikki Bell (Goldsmiths): ‘The Invitation to Imagine: Spaces of Memory in Post-Dictatorship Argentina’

Audio of the talk given by Professor Vikki Bell on 28 January 2015, as part of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Seminar Series: ‘Latin America: The Potential of the Global South?’.