Trying to Remember. Chavez Ravine - a Lyrical Monument. Part 3

A public does have a memory, but what is that memory? Who decides? What signifies accepted public memory? And perhaps most interestingly who and/or what is left forgotten by the masses? Though many studies have been conducted on and concerning public memory, few come to accept a concrete definition of the term. This is due to the various approaches to this study, and a connection to culture and other influences. Renowned French historian Pierre Nora contended that "memory is life." It is in constant evolution, and remembering and forgetting within this evolution are inevitable. Furthermore, memory is susceptible to "being long dormant and periodically revived" (Phillips, 2004). Public memory consists of specific times and places, or sites. Nora established this phrase and concept of "memory sites," which focus on his belief in memory origins (Tai, 2001). This concept relies on public memories that are contingent on time and space for both conception and revitalization. Beyond public memories connection to a specific past, it works to guarantee remembrance of that event in the future (Casey, 2004).

It is important to grasp that public memory and history are not one and the same. Though memory sites may be similar for both, public memory is "a collective phenomenon" that "manifests" itself in the actions and statements of individuals (Kansteiner, 2002) and monuments, but often these are individually decided or at least introduced. Nora worked to show the relationship between history and memory conceptualized, however he did in fact realize them to be separate entities. This is illustrated clearly in the case of Chavez Ravine, where as the history is quite a different thing from the memory of the residents of Chavez Ravine and those outside, most of which have no memory of the event. There is a culture and an identity that directly correlates with public memory, which is not necessarily so for history. The work of Edward Casey, University of New York, Stony Brook professor and author of various works on history and remembering, implicates this tie to culture and identity through public memory. "Public memories serve as a horizon within which a public finds itself, constitutes itself, and deliberates its own existence" (Kendall on Casey 2004).

Clearly the multi-faceted cultural implications found to embody public memory are far too dense to be merely defined as a memory with public exposure, as often assumed from the term. For these reasons I shy away from assigning an over-simplified definition to public memory. Public memory is however defined by what it remembers and conversely forgets. Rosa Eberly, Communication author and professor of Pennsylvania State University, claims that there are issues of remembering and forgetting within public memory. She inquires on whose memories are cemented in the broader public sense and whose are forgotten, or ignored (Eberly, 2004). This unavoidable evolution of public memory to remember and forget does however lend itself to a certain ability of a public to control what it forgets and remembers. This idea assigns to a society a responsibility to ensure remembrance of specific things. Public memory responsibility calls for not only recognition of often injustices, but also collectively expressing regret (Phillips, 2004). Noted French philosopher Jean Baudrillard exemplifies this responsibility best concerning Holocaust memory, "Forgetting the extermination is part of the extermination itself" (as quoted by Young, 1993).

Within this tendency of a public to forget, lies the danger of potential erasure of an event or people from public memory, especially if it is forgotten for too long. Nevertheless, as Nora determined, the open nature of public memory also lends it to revitalization of forgotten or faded memories. In these revisions and revitalizations, meanings and attainment of meanings may also be altered. Just as history and memory may comprise different meanings to different groups, revived memories may also hold different meanings than that of those before it. In order for the meanings to take root, revitalization works must be done in the first place. For some of the former members of Chavez Ravine, this work exists. Many former members of the community live in the areas that surround Dodger Stadium and an annual ritual maintains their public memory. "They have formed a group called Los Deterrados, the Uprooted, that meets each year to picnic at Elysian Park, the playground of their childhoods" (Normark, 1999).

References

Casey, E. (2004). Public Memory in Place and Time. In Phillips, K. (Ed.). PublicMemory in Place and Time. (pp. 17-42). Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press.

Eberly, Rosa. (2004). Everywhere You Go It's There. Forgetting and Remembering the University of Texas Tower Shootings. In Phillips, K. (Ed.). Public Memory in Place and Time. (pp. 65-84). Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press.

Kansteiner, W. (2002). Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies, 41 (2), 179-197. Binghamton, New York: State University of New York Binghamton.

Normark, D. (1999). Chavez Ravine: 1949: A Los Angeles Story. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. Phillips, K. (Ed.). (2004). Framing Public Memory. (p.2-6) Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press.

Tai, H. (2001). Remembered Realms: Pierre Nora and French National Memory. The American Historical Review. Vol. 106, No.3. Amerian Historical Association.

Young, J. (1993). The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. (p.1). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.