Wars within the barracks
Recalling military service during the dictatorship in Chile

During the seventeen years of the Chilean dictatorship, more than 370,000 young men, almost exclusively from humble homes, passed through military barracks as conscripts. In the first decade of the 21st century, nearly 100,000 of them began to break their silence and mobilized as part of a former conscripts“ movement, seeking pensions, benefits, and recognition as victims of the military regime. Based on testimonies, interviews, unpublished documents, and field notes, this book analyzes the memories of military service that emerged with the movement in the 21st century, revealing how Pinochet's wars were fought within the barracks between 1973 and 1990. The former conscripts do not share a single interpretation of the coup, the military regime, or its legacy, and the grand narratives of the ”struggle for memory" are insufficient to understand former conscripts' memories.