As the editor of this rich, far-reaching study of contemporary Latin American memory politics remarks in her introduction, ‘[t]he emergence of what can be conceptualized as a second wave of memory, truth, and justice mobilizations […] has not necessarily been a surprise’ (p. 1). Indeed, questions of truth, reconciliation, victimhood and blame have inevitably resurfaced in Latin America as trials against perpetrators have been reopened and a new generation has come of age, all set against the backdrop of a global upsurge in memory cultures. In the volume's introduction, which is diligently aware of distinctions of historical circumstance and regional particularity, Roberta Villalón conceptualises three overarching reasons for this recent paradigmatic shift within the region: first, she points to the enduring lack of justice for those impacted by past violence, despite renewed governmental, judicial and social drives towards the re-examination of national pasts; second, Villalón discusses the ‘remarkable persistence’ (p. 2) and tenacity of ‘both dominant and marginalized groups in their efforts to legitimize and/or impose their versions of the past’ (p. 3); finally, the focus falls on the region's recent ‘context of economic volatility and inequality’ (p. 3), which, as Villalón notes, has nourished a general popular distrust of state institutions. The thoroughness of the volume's introduction, as well as its sensitivity towards the complex, relational nature of memory politics in the region, comfortably fulfils the text's primary purpose as a pedagogical intervention, framing the broad range of case studies and contexts that follow in an effective manner. The breadth of these contributions is matched by their depth of insight, meticulously edited by Villalón to ensure that Memory, Truth, and Justice in Contemporary Latin America comes together in a manner that well exceeds the sum of its parts.

The first part of the volume, ‘Framing Collective Memory: Counter-Hegemonic and Master Narratives’, in many ways lays the foundations for its three subsequent parts, bringing into focus the myriad tensions and contradictions that are concealed behind dominant discourses of historical memory. Emilio Crenzel initiates the section with a systematic analysis of the reception and distribution of the Nunca Más report, arguing that an understanding of the text's ‘preparation, uses, and resignifications’ (p. 26) furnishes a more complex image of the political and cultural processes that are at play in post-dictatorship Argentina. Continuing in the Argentine context, Valentina Salvi's provocative analysis of narratives of victimhood addresses questions of national reconciliation from the perspective of the military, noting how a collective rhetoric of justice and retribution has been manipulated to expand the category of ‘victim’ within the public sphere. Part 1 draws to a close with a striking piece from Hillary Hiner and María José Azócar, who demonstrate how processes of post-conflict ‘reconciliatory framing’ (p. 43) in 1990s Chile promoted a conservative notion of the family unit and a desire to reinstate the boundary between public and private life, leading, in this specific case, to the prioritisation of familial unity over the denunciation of gendered, domestic violence. The next part of the book, ‘Defining Historical Periods, Blame, and Reparation’, shifts the focus from the actors themselves to the polemics inherent in the identification and historical demarcation of periods of state violence. In particular, contributions from Juan Poblete, focusing on the Chilean context, and Francisco Adolfo García Jerez and Juliane Müller, who study the cultural memory of dictatorship in Bolivia, both superbly demonstrate how questions of reparation, reconciliation and collective responsibility are shaped and politicised by the very historical frameworks through which such politics of memory are critically understood.

As Villalón notes in her introduction to Memory, Truth, and Justice, the significance of cultural spaces for debates over meanings of the past ‘cannot be separated from that of other social mobilisations or legal and political efforts for truth and reconciliation’ (p. 6). Indeed, the third part of the volume is dedicated entirely to such a focus, drawing analyses of the contemporary Uruguayan, Guatemalan and Argentine contexts together as a means of exploring how ‘wounded cultures’ (p. 115) socialise, narrativise and, ultimately, politicise personal and collective traumas. Of notable significance in this section is an illuminating chapter by Susana Kaiser that takes as its case study recent trials against the military in Argentina, which, as she demonstrates, offer society an opportunity ‘to witness the performance of memory in the courtroom’ (p. 156). Her sensitive analysis of the relational quality of legal proceedings, social activism and media representation in contemporary Argentina, as well as their relationship to notions of accountability and secondary witnessing, will no doubt prove to be of significant interest to students and scholars alike. The final part of the volume, ‘Arts, Media, Museums, and Memory’, continues the emphasis on the role and potential of culture in the aftermath of violence, focusing on specific artistic practices that have responded to, and in turn influenced, public processes of reconciliation. Alexis Cortés examines the societal effects of popular muralism in a barrio of Santiago, Chile, elegantly exploring the activist, collective and identitarian impact that such murals have on local residents. Nina Schneider and Rebecca J. Atencio shift focus to the artistic arena of post-dictatorship Brazil in their chapter, nuancing contemporary debates over memory in the region through a discussion of the ‘double-edged role of artistic-cultural production’ (p. 189). In a volume that is so rich in detail and sensitive to context, it seems fitting that Schneider and Atencio provide one of the closing chapters for the book, with their urge for contemporary scholars to acknowledge the relational yet diverse nature of memory politics in Latin America, paying attention to ‘the dynamic interrelations in a memory struggle and the meaning of cultural productions in a specific reckoning process’ (p. 201, emphasis added).

Though the chapters that comprise Memory, Truth, and Justice are the result of previous publications, and in this sense do not constitute new pieces of research, their compilation within one volume does indeed represent both a significant pedagogical tool and a valuable intervention in Latin American memory studies. As Villalón herself writes, the book provides ‘a realistic panorama of where the complex and contradictory memory, truth, and justice processes in Latin America are, with all their glow and their murkiness’ (p. 223). Through its sustained sensitivity and sober call for collective action, Memory, Truth, and Justice represents an effective counter to the ‘murkiness’ of contemporary memory politics in Latin America, providing direction and dynamism for future research in the field.