Coup d'état and public history: the battle for narratives about the past during the Chilean post-dictatorship

Abstract

In the post-dictatorship period, it had to face complex challenges. Governing democracy in coincidence with members of the recently ended dictatorship was a difficult problem to overcome. In this context, facing the recent
past from the official narratives required fragile balances. In this article, we analyze how the debate and development of the public history of the coup d'état took shape during the first years of the return to democracy. We analyze how
the official, right-wing intellectuals and historians enter the battle for the past and propose their narratives. Finally, we realized the relevance of historical research in fighting the distortion of the past, observing the risks of relinquishing
public discursive spaces to individuals or groups that seek to consolidate interests through errors and misinformation about recent Chilean history.