The seminar was led by Prof. Nora Gaon, Director of the Spanish-Speaking Division at the Ghetto Resistors Museum and the Children’s Museum of Israel; David Telias, Coordinator of Jewish Studies atUniversidad ORT Uruguay; Oscar Destouet, member of Friends of the Museum of Memory; Hugo Achugar, Director of Culture at the Ministry of Education and Culture; Prof. Rosario Hermano, Coordinator of the Values Education Program at the Catholic University of Uruguay; Gerardo Caetano, historian and political analyst, former Director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of the Republic; Garabed Arakelian, Secretary of the Uruguay-Armenia Cultural Association; and Javier Miranda, Director of Human Rights at the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Collective memories are processes of reception and transmission that extend into the future. Debates surrounding their construction are a hallmark of our societies. This process intensified after World War II and gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s. In our region, following the civil-military dictatorships that shook societies as a whole, demands for remembrance have intensified considerably. Commemorations, museums, and memorials that seek to bring to mind what happened in those years are common today.
There were two panels based on the following themes:
The first focused on how to convey in the classroom those extreme experiences—such as the Holocaust—that have left a mark on our societies and pose methodological, epistemological, and ethical challenges for teachers when addressing their classes. It featured Nora Gaon, David Telias, and Oscar Destouet, moderated by Hugo Achugar.
The second panel proposed a reflection on what to remember and why. It featured Rosario Hermano, Garabed Arakelian, and Gerardo Caetano, moderated by Javier Miranda.