Memory

On Saturday, a small group gathered in the Seattle Public Library for an afternoon viewing of When the Mountains Tremble, a 1983 documentary on the Guatemalan conflict between the military and the indigenous Mayan people.

After the film had finished, director Pamela Yates stood up to say that during the viewing Brett Kavanaugh had been confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, despite allegations by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her in the ’80s.

A heavy silence fell over the room before Yates continued, “And now, let me turn this over to Doctora Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatú, to talk about the power of memory,” she said.

The irony was not lost on anyone.

Since Dr. Blasey Ford came forward in early September to publicly accuse Judge Kavanaugh of assault, the country has been plunged into a heated national debate. Can Ford’s memory be believed? Should Kavanaugh suffer for something he may or may not have done 30 years ago? Why are men’s career’s held at a higher value than women’s testimonies?

And under these questions runs the constant tension of the #MeToo movement, Trump’s scandal riddled presidency, and the Anita Hill hearings of the 1990s.

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On September 27th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to pit the memories of Dr. Blasey Ford against those of Judge Kavanaugh.

Repeatedly Ford was questioned on specifics of the party where she claims Kavanaugh pined her to a bed and drunkenly tried to take her cloths off in an attempt to rape her, covering her mouth as she tried to scream. Ford couldn’t remember who was at the party, how she got home, or even what day it was. Despite this, the quote of the day was what Dr. Ford said she could most clearly remember.

“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two [men], and their having fun at my expense,” Ford said.

Similarly, Kavanaugh’s testimony revolved around his ability to remember, or not, the events of that summer. He brought paper calendars he kept as a teenager of his daily events, none of which recorded a party with a young Christine Blasey Ford. And he refuted, repeatedly and belligerently, senator’s questions as to whether or not he had ever drank to the point of blacking out.

In the end, it came down to a 50-48 vote in the senate, split almost exactly down party lines.

Back in the Seattle Public Library, Dr Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatú, speaking sometimes in English but mostly in Spanish, presented on the power of social, political, and personal memory.

Pointing to different clips from the documentary she explained the power of memory when used to recall traumas suffered by an individual or community. She also examined the ways authority can influence societal memory, shaping the way a country remembers it’s past. And of course, she discussed the use of documentaries such as When the Mountains Tremble to retain lasting historical memories.

Many of the audience members where recent immigrants from Latin America who spoke candidly of the traumas and atrocities they had witnessed. They too switched back and forth between English and Spanish as they talked. The room was charged with unspoken emotion and remembered pasts, while outside people gathered in Westlake Park to protest the hours-old Supreme Court confirmation.

The weight of history, and of memory, sat heavy.

1 in 3 American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. But only 33% will choose to report it. The majority, 67% of all violent sexual crimes, will go unreported. They fall out of our historical and statistical memory, to live on only in the minds of the survivors and those few they might choose to tell.

Similarly, even loud and public accusations like the #MeToo movement will be remembered differently by those who watched it unfold. For the Kavanaugh nomination specifically there are huge divides in the population. After the hearings, but before the vote, Republican support for Kavanaugh increased by roughly 10 points while Democrats decreased by about 20. Along gender lines there is a 18 point polling gap.

As the country marches forward it will be constantly important, but increasingly difficult, to maintain an accurate account of what takes place. For many residents of Guatemala, their history has been taken from them; their memories suppressed or augmented by the government narrative. Journalism, documentation, and person-to-person connections are increasingly important to form a collective, reliable memory of our present. Without memory, a people have no way of learning from the past.