THE FETISHISM OF COMMEMORATION: AN ANALYSIS OF OFFICIAL STATEMENTS ON HURRICANE MITCH ON THE TENTH AND TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARIES OF ITS PASSAGE THROUGH CENTRAL AMERICA

 

Tallennettuna:
Bibliografiset tiedot
Tekijät: Schmipp , Constanza, Víquez Valerio, Natalia María
Aineistotyyppi: artículo original
Tila:Versión publicada
Julkaisupäivä:2026
Kuvaus:Hurricane Mitch marked a watershed in Central American history, both for the scale of its impact and for the attention it drew in the public agenda and international cooperation. The commemorations that followed have held a prominent place in the public sphere, materializing in numerous ceremonies and official events. This article examines the official declarations issued on the tenth and twenty-fifth anniversaries, understood as devices that produce and administer memory. It explores how these declarations became formalized rituals, legitimized through national and regional institutions, that deliver a manageable and compliant memory. While the texts acknowledge the structural causes of vulnerability that turned the hurricane into a large-scale disaster, the commemorations operate as fetishized objects: it legitimizes official narratives, reproduces hierarchies, and offers an episodic memory that, rather than enabling sustained political learning, reinforces a structural amnesia that neutralizes the possibility of transforming the conditions that produced the catastrophe.
Maa:Portal de Revistas UCR
Organisaatio:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Portal de Revistas UCR
Kieli:Español
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.revistas.ucr.ac.cr:article/8342
Linkit:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rdialogos/article/view/8342
Sanahaku:hurricane Mitch
Central America
declarations
fetishization
structural amnesia
huracán Mitch
Centroamérica
declaraciones
fetichización
amnesia estructural