An Archaeology of Dictatorship in Cuba: The Escuadrón 41 of the Rural Guard in Matanzas (1958)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeology of dictatorships in Latin America has had a significant development in the last decades, especially focusing on the south and central continental experiences. However, there is a lack of attention to the dictatorial processes in the Caribbean from an archaeological perspective. Cuba is not the exception. After the military coup of March 1952 led by former president Fulgencio Batista, Cuba entered in a dictatorship that resulted in a bloody violence with extreme state repression which included imprisonment, forced exile, murder, disappearance of people, and the display of corpses in public spaces. By 1958 a former colonial fortress became a torture and detention center known as the Escuadrón 41 of the Rural Guard in the city of Matanzas. Its destruction after the Cuban Revolution, presents it as an atypical case study, illustrating a process of forgetting that contrasts with the national master narratives. Here, I present the preliminary results from the first archaeological project focusing on Batista’s dictatorship. Integrating archaeological excavations, underwater surveys, testimonies, and archival research, I explore the destruction of the site after the Cuban Revolution, while contributing to the understanding of a traumatic past from new material referents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38529.0