Abstract
The aim of this article is to relate the memories of the Argentine victory at the 1978 World Cup to the broader context of constructions and memorial disputes that marked Argentina’s dictatorship, redemocratization and democracy. The recent history of the country is strongly marked by the conflicts between the authoritarian past and society’s relations with the last dictatorship, which constantly emerge as a space of conflict in the present through narrative disputes over the many memories built and consolidated. The 1978 victory marks a milestone in the conflict between cheering versus resisting the regime that ran from March 1976 to December 1983. Backed up by data consulted at the headquarters of the International Football Federation (FIFA) and Argentine with the coming to power of Mauricio Macri, in 2015, our hypothesis is that of a change in government policy based on memory, something that happened during the Kirchnerist governments from 2003 to 2015. Thus, the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the conquest in 2008, and the forty 2018, allow us to analyze these political changes and to perceive a change in the perspective of the World Cup as an event of dictatorship.
Keywords:
Argentina; World Cup; Celebrations; Dictatorship; Memories