I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared

by Eric Stener Carlson

In 1977 "Julia" became one of the 30,000 victims of Argentina's most recent military dictatorship. Julia was a young physician and mother-to-be kidnapped from a medical clinic and found years later in a clandestine grave along with 334 other corpses. Who were those thousands of victims? Who was Julia?
By reconstructing Julia's life, Eric Stener Carlson gives voice to the thousands of citizens who were "disappeared." In doing so, he must use the pseudonym "Julia" to protect the people she left behind. Julia's poignant story is told through the emotional memories of childhood friends and family, classmates and colleagues, an ex-lover, and fellow prisoners whose lives intersected with hers in the government torture centers. Interspersed between the personal testimonies are the commentaries of a military general, a priest, a politician, a human rights activist, and a prosecuting attorney in the war crimes tribunal, giving her story a political and social context.

Genres: School, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 1996

About the author

Eric Stener Carlson (Minnesota, 1969) is an author currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

He wrote his first book, "I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared" (Temple University Press, 1996), when he was right out of college. It is based on his work with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identifying the remains of people killed by the military dictatorship in the 1970s. After working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, he wrote his second book, "The Pear Tree: Is Torture Ever Justified?" (Clarity Press, 2006), a very personal investigation into the use of torture and its moral consequences.

Eric became a novelist with the publication of "The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires" (Tartarus Press, 2009), a surreal, supernatural mystery. He followed this up with the novel, "Muladona" (Tartarus Press, 2016), "Anxiety of Ghosts" (Amazon, 2017) and his first short story collection, "GAS" (Abraxas Press, 2018). He has a number of other novel projects in the works.

His short stories and articles have appeared in journals in the US, UK, Argentina and Spain.

Eric holds a BA in International Affairs from The American University, an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was also a Fulbright scholar affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires.

Eric frequently lectures and is always happy to give talks to book clubs and universities.

Reviews

[Sairah Naveed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Generally, when reading about dictatorships, genocide, or any kind of cataclysmic event in history, everything is all about numbers, facts or torture. However, I Remember Julia does something special--it humanizes the unnamed, effectively creating empathy for these desaparecidos. Reading the accounts of people from different backgrounds and livelihoods gives the reader an insight into what its was like to live in Argentina during the 70s. This book is not just about "Julia", it is about the thousands whom fell victim to the brutal military regime in Argentina whose shadow unfortunately still haunts the country decades after its' fall.

[Henry Wijaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I Remember Julia" is neither a history book nor a biography. This book does tell a story of a woman named Julia Andrea Montessini (not her real name) who was allegedly kidnapped, tortured and murdered by supposedly the Armed Forces during the conflict time in Argentina. Julia Andrea is one of those many disappeared people and the use of her name is a representation of the voices of all of them instead of a single individual. This book tries to present us how the disappearance of these people affect the lives of those around them; how the disappeared do not really disappear in the end, even after years. And in fact the memories of them should never ever disappear from us. They should be remembered despite the many people who want to make them keep buried forever.

[Anabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the 1970's people who were politically active or were suspected of being politically active were kidnaped by the military in Argentina. Families never heard of their disappeared relatives again.
In this case the skeleton of Julia was found and identified because 1.Her height 2. Her dentist record (teeth), 3. Marks near heart which indicated her previous heart surgery and 4. Her pelvis showed she had given birth.
Family members, friends and co-workers memories of Julia were compiled by author to make this book. A form of remembering and reviving Julia.

[Lexy deGraffenreid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only an incredible introduction to the horrors of the Dirty War, but a fantastic walk through the politics of memory. For people wondering about how individual and social memory are highly complex systems, especially in the face of terror, this book is a great introduction to its effects on both an individual and societal level. This book is great because it makes you think. In focusing on a single victim, this book makes you think about the many facets of a single persons' personality, the nature of "truth", and the Dirty War's impact on every aspect of society.

[Gretchen Heinrichs · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good intro to the personal stories and background of the "dirty war" in argentina. the writing is not particularly great, but this book is a fast read that gets you interested in the topic.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of the Argentine Dirty War. Almost unthinkable that this happened just thirty years ago.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

More on the Disappeared of Argentina.