Pilar Calveiro (born 7 September 1953) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

political scientist, a doctor of political science residing in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. She was exiled to that country after having been kidnapped at the

Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics The Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (Spanish: ''Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada'', commonly referred to by its acronym ESMA) has gone through three major transformations throughout its history. Originally ESMA served as an educa ...

(ESMA) during the military dictatorship of the 1970s. In her writing she has made important contributions to the analysis of

biopower Biopower (or ''biopouvoir'' in French) is a term coined by French scholar, philosopher, historian, and social theorist Michel Foucault. It relates to the practice of modern nation states and their regulation of their subjects through "an expl ...

and

political violence Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-state actors (forced ...

, as well as recent history and the memory of Argentine repression. Her work has been published in Mexico, Argentina, and France, and she is currently a research professor at the

Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla The Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) (Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla) is the oldest and largest university in Puebla, Mexico. Founded on 15 April 1578 as Colegio del Espíritu Santo, the school was sponsored by the ...

. Her publications include ''Poder y desaparición, los campos de concentración en Argentina'' and ''Desapariciones, memoria y desmemoria de los campos de desaparición argentinos''.

Biography

Pilar Calveiro was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

on 7 September 1953. She studied at the

Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires (''National School of Buenos Aires'') is a public high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires. In the tradition of the European ''gymnasium'' it provides a free education ...

and began studying sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...

. She was a militant of the (FAR), and later of the

Montoneros Montoneros ( es, link=no, Movimiento Peronista Montonero-MPM) was an Argentine left-wing Peronist guerrilla organization, active throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The name is an allusion to the 19th-century cavalry militias called Montoner ...

. On 7 May 1977, she was kidnapped by a member of the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

in the middle of the street and taken to the clandestine detention center called

Mansión Seré The Mansión Seré (also known as Quinta de Seré and Atila) was a (CCD) run by the Argentine Air Force during the self-styled National Reorganization Process (1976–1983). History Mansión Seré was an old house located on on the border be ...

in Ituzaingó. In a term that lasted for a year and a half, she was also detained-disappeared in the

Castelar Castelar is a city in Morón Partido (county), Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, some 30 km west of the nation's capital, the autonomous city of Buenos Aires. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. Castelar is the wes ...

police station, the former house of Admiral Massera belonging to the Naval Information Service, and at the Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics (ESMA). She went into exile in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1978, and later in Mexico, where she has lived since 1979. There she studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(UNAM), where she obtained her bachelor's degree (1986), master's degree (1995), and doctorate (2001) in that discipline.

''Poder y desaparición''

''Poder y desaparición: Los campos de concentración en Argentina'' (''Power and Disappearance: The Concentration Camps in Argentina'') is Calveiro's most referenced work. Written in the framework of her master's thesis and published for the first time in Buenos Aires in 1998, it is a work drawing on testimonies of survivors from different torture and concentration camps of the

Argentine military dictatorship The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'', often simply ''el Proceso'', "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, in which it was supported by the United Sta ...

(1976–1983). Calveiro reflects on the political concepts that underlie these practices, interweaving her personal experience into this broader narrative. The prologue of the book was written by the poet

Juan Gelman Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, country where he arrived as a political exile of th ...

Personal life

Pilar Calveiro became a widow in 1980, when her husband, Horacio Domingo Campiglia, was arrested in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

by personnel from the 601st Battalion of the

Argentine Army The Argentine Army ( es, Ejército Argentino, EA) is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander- ...

, who moved him to Argentine territory and then "disappeared" him as another victim of

Operation Condor Operation Condor ( es, link=no, Operación Cóndor, also known as ''Plan Cóndor''; pt, Operação Condor) was a United States–backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of o ...

. She is the mother of two daughters, Mercedes and María Campiglia. In 2014 she received the

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

Diploma of Merit as one of Argentina's most important writers of political and sociological essays of the decade.

Individual publications

* ''Poder y desaparición'' (1998). Buenos Aires: Colihue * ''Redes familiares de sumisión y resistencia'' (2003). México: UACM * ''Familia y poder'' (2006). Buenos Aires: Libros de la Araucaria * ''Política y/o violencia. Una aproximación a la guerrilla de los años 70'' (2006). Buenos Aires: Norma Editorial * ''Violencias de estado. La guerra antiterrorista y la guerra contra el crimen como medios de control global.'' (2012). Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores

Selected articles in collective works

* "Antiguos y nuevos sentidos de la política y la violencia", in ''Revista Lucha Armada'' 2 (4), 2006 * "Texto y memoria en el relato histórico", in ''Acta Poética'' 27 (2), Autumn 2006 * "Torture: New Methods and Meanings", translated by William Nichols and Thomas C. Hilde, in ''South Central Review'' 24 (1), Spring 2007 * "Apuntes sobre la tensión entre violencia y ética en la construcción de las memorias políticas", in Durán, Valeria/Huffschmid, Anne (Hg.) (2012).'' Topografías conflictivas. Memorias, espacios y ciudad en disputa''. Buenos Aires: Nueva Trilce

References