Authors' note: This text was initially written as part of a research grant but has been edited and adapted for publication as a blog post.
José B. Negrón (public health researcher and health psychologist)
Porfirio Negrón was awarded a Purple Heart medal for his service in the Korean War. This medal is a decoration reserved for those wounded or killed while serving in the United States (U.S.) military. However, Porfirio's real wounds were from times before the war and were the ones that pushed him to enlist in the U.S. military. These lines are an extract of the interpretation of a narrative interview conducted to Porfirio by me. In addition to being a Korean War veteran, Porfirio was also my grandfather. The motive behind the interview was personal. I was aware that my time with the 90-year-old man in front of me was coming to an end. Porfirio died in 2020. However, the audio recording of that interview is still with me. The interview took place at his home, in a quiet setting in Yauco (Puerto Rico) with just the two of us. I asked him to please narrate his story and requested permission to record his voice. I did not interrupt him. I took some notes to later ask him to elaborate on certain topics. I saw him, listened to him, respected his rhythm, his pauses, and his emotions as he recalled and narrated these events. I paid attention to his nonverbal cues and verbalized them, to record them and facilitate the fluency of the interaction. For the first time, I saw Porfirio not just as my grandfather but as a person. I realized that we had broken a silence. I was entrusted with a narrative, and within it, I discovered a hidden story that it is possible others like him may also have and share in a collective silence (1).
Silences are created at four central moments: the moment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives) and the moment of retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance) (2, 3). However, even textual records frequently exclude voices. Sometimes, this is because record creators chose to suppress them. The ability to silence has been a weapon used by states since at least Roman times and continues to be used to this day (2).
The history of Puerto Rico is full of archival silences, with a recent example being the lack of an audit of the public debt. Through our oral tradition, we demand accountability, but the actions to document the debt are not carried out. This is a reminder that colonization stands as a powerful silencing force like few others (4). Sovereign power can be used to decide what counts as being alive and, by using exile, expulsion, proscription, non-recognition, social death, pre-emptive or retroactive nullification, it can reduce people to a state where it is as if they never existed (5). We coexist with the memory of the oppressor and the oppressed, which implies that the knowledge of one culture is the noise of another (6).
To better understand our reality and societal memory, we must approach the history of countries in the Caribbean with a colonial past. In the case of Jamaica, researchers identified that there were differences in the formats used to create, document and preserve societal memory (6-9). While the colonial establishment wrote their reports, diary journals and observations as notes, the marginalized masses sang songs and chants, danced, told stories and held community gatherings. The creativity of the gifted singer, musician, dancer, storyteller, and community leader is central to the creation, dissemination and preservation of information, as is the scribe with ink and paper. For this reason, an ideological dispute arises between various forms of knowledge and expressions of memory.
Historical narratives are based on memory and are performed in oral traditional practices (9). However, memory is a key component for the development of a community’s cultural self. The memory of early beginnings, lifestyles, socio-cultural norms and rhythms, linguistic expressions, etc. form part of the stories that communities ‘tell themselves about themselves’. Narratives serve as a connecting link that transcends contemporary socio-political issues that divide communities, with its focus on common historical struggles and triumphs (8). Harris contends this is the priceless contribution of oral tradition to archival work. ‘It is the oral, rather than documentary evidence, that carries the story. The archival record, both oral and documentary, is but a sliver of social memory.’ Yet, when both written and oral texts are used in tandem, they offer greater slivers of societal past than when accessed separately (10, 11).
The interview with my grandfather was eye-opening. It highlighted the possibility that the real stories of Puerto Rican soldiers might be silenced and excluded by two different types of silence: (i) colonial archives and narratives about heroism narrated by the colonizer, and (ii) a self-imposed institutional silence to protect their work and safeguard themselves and their families from potential reprisals (12, 13). This has an impact on how we understand our reality because these silences could be considered as manipulations of the official memory, and social justice cannot be achieved if these voices are suppressed.
REFERENCES
1. Chabrán R. Papi,¿ Qué hiciste durante la guerra. La historia de un boricua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la Guerra de Corea” En Puerto Rico en la Segunda Guerra Mundial: el escenario regional, editado por Jorge Rodríguez Beruff y José L Bolívar Fresneda. 2012:459-75.
2. Moss M, Thomas D. Archival silences: Missing, lost and, uncreated archives2021.
3. Trouillot M-R. Silencing the past: Power and the production of history: Beacon press; 2015.
4. Piggott M. What are silences?: The Australian example. Archival silences: Routledge; 2021. p. 26-53.
5. Bradley A. Unbearable life: A genealogy of political erasure: Columbia University Press; 2019.
6. Cooper C. Noises in the blood: Orality, gender, and the" vulgar" body of Jamaican popular culture: Duke University Press; 1995.
7. Griffin SH. Putting Up Ah Resistance: Rastafari Records, Struggles and Triumphs. Decolonizing the Caribbean Record: An Archives Reader. 2018:475-501.
8. Griffin SH. Noises in the archives: Acknowledging the present yet silenced presence in Caribbean archival memory. Archival silences: Routledge; 2021. p. 81-99.
9. Alleyne MC. Linguistics and the oral tradition: Springer; 2003.
10. Harris V. The archival sliver: a perspective on the construction of social memory in archives and the transition from apartheid to democracy. Refiguring the archive: Springer; 2002. p. 135-60.
11. Freund A, Thomson A. Oral history and photography: Springer; 2011.
12. North P. Diaries and silence. Archival silences. 2021:208.
13. Álvarez Curbelo S. La bandera en la colina: Luis Muñoz Marín en los tiempos de la guerra de Corea. Luis Muñoz Marín: perfiles de su gobernación. 2003:1-19.