The Construction of a New “Official” Past Within the Framework of the “Cultural battle”: Two Commemorations in Milei’s Argentina (October 12 and March 24)

Abstract

In this work, we will focus on how Javier Milei is waging what he calls a “cultural battle” over Argentina’s past. To this end, his government has advanced in the reinterpretation of historical events that form part of the national holidays. Our object of analysis will be Milei’s public interventions on social media, in interviews, and in speeches, along with publications on the official website “casarosada.gob.ar”. In these, we will examine the interpretations proposed for both the recent past and more distant events. In the case of March 24, referring to the last military dictatorship, Milei and his government have championed the perspective of the so-called “complete memory” and have questioned the number of victims of state repression. They have also reinstated the term “Día de la Raza” (Day of the Race) to commemorate October 12. In both cases, they contradict established historiographical developments and social consensus. We will appeal to the notion of “nostalgia” developed by F. Ankersmit and its “reactionary” variant, as a fertile concept to account for the interpretation of the past proposed by Milei and his government.