Narratives and Collective Emotions about Sebastián Acevedo’s Immolation (1983), Concepción, Chile

Abstract

This article identifies, describes, and analyzes the current narratives about an exceptional case of human rights violation: the immolation of Sebastián Acevedo (1983). Through a qualitative study, we explore how emotions allow us to assess certain meanings about this historical event and the objects that commemorate it. The article concludes that the predominant emotions in the narratives about this event, because they are oriented towards a negative pole, are associated with feelings of helplessness and threat, producing distancing and rejection of the Acevedo’s self-sacrifice. Consequently, they do not currently reveal socio-political meanings associated with the human rights violations during the dictatorship.