Body, Silence, and Disobedience

The Construction of Identity in the Narrative of ‘Cala’, Daughter of a Repressor (1976-1983)

Abstract

In this paper, following a biographical-narrative approach, the life story and identity of "Cala" is addressed, who was the daughter of a repressor (later convicted in democratic times for crimes against humanity) and who hid her identity amidst family silence during the last civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983). From this perspective, a new chapter to the collective of "Disobedient Histories" is added, prioritizing the subject's voice, which becomes a new voice for "Memory, Truth, and Justice," and includes the significance of having navigated her adolescence during the de facto government. Referring to the idea of an unknown identity in those dictatorial contexts, identity, gender, and sexuality were characteristics constructed and performed through actions, gestures, and social practices, following Butler's ideas on the body and language. Arfuch's contributions, emphasizing the issue of language as an active research record, motivate us to take a narrative perspective where the discourse transcends intentionality when recounting the pedagogical bodily experiences involving the body and language. Although it starts from two dimensions—identity and her life story—that are intertwined from their beginnings, a voice is constituted and explored throughout her biographical trajectory, highlighting the Physical Education Center, which she defined as her "grounding wire" and which made her feel "one more, not one less".