Affect, memory and the blue jumper: Queer languages of loss in Argentina’s aftermath of violence

Abstract

From 1976 to 1983, a devastating military regime orchestrated the vanishing of 30 000 lives in Argentina, the infamous ‘disappeared’. For more than three decades, the families of the victims commanded the process of national mourning. In this essay, I suggest that the experience of loss has circulated from direct victims to ever-expanding audiences. To articulate this transition, I draw upon recent cultural productions and personal biographies touched by trauma. The story of a particular blue jumper touches upon the theatrical piece Mi vida después (2009), the film Los rubios (2003) and the TV show 23 Pares (2012). This body of work speaks about unconventional forms of care, which have emerged out of grief. It also traces the emergence of a new language to deal with loss. Ultimately, I suggest that disparate forms of ‘affective reparation’ have made room for a queer system of kinship beyond bloodline ties.