The workers of the factory Federal Soap in the 1970s: a historical reconstruction and different narratives

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to studies focused on restoring workers' perspectives from the 1970s. Therefore, an approach that integrates aspects of daily life will be privileged in order to understand the complexity of those years since ?as several authors have demonstrated? the last military dictatorship implied violent and traumatic experiences for many people, while for others it was a stage of "normality". Based on the case of the Jabón Federal factory located in La Matanza (Buenos Aires), the representations of workers without political militancy about workers who are victims of state terrorism will be investigated first, and for this purpose, their memories of the manufacturing climate will be contemplated. Afterwards, the identities of the disappeared workers will be restored as well as the political plot in which they were inserted with the purpose of reconstructing at least a small part of the histories destroyed by the dictatorship. To address both objectives, we will use various sources: oral interviews with former workers (employees and workers) and hierarchical personnel; interviews with relatives and colleagues of disappeared workers; press of armed organizations; police files; and databases of human rights organizations.