Nora Strejilevich is a human rights activist and tours college campuses all over the country. In May 2006 she visited Ohio State as part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Gender and Ethnicity Across Divides sponsored in part by Clusters for Interdisciplinary Research on International Themes. To read some of the papers presented at this symposium or to learn more about the programming sponsored by CIRIT click the poster above.

As noted previously, testimonio is inspired by extreme social and political violence and unrest and generally contains a statement against either the conditions described or the perceived oppressor. This statement in turn provides insight as to why the act of remembering is important to the author, and by extension, to the community that shared the collective trauma. It speaks to the question of why history is important.

A Single Numberless Death ends with a memory of Strejilevich's attendance at an event at the ruins of the CCD where she was held on the anniversary of the junta. The CCD, el Club Atletico, was demolished during the junta and the participants are painting a mural on the remnants. She describes the scene, writing “Amnesia-erasing hands labor, and the bricks begin to speak.  The walls start to reflect white kerchiefs, spray-painted signs begin to demand justice.  Even though it looks nothing like my yesterday, it starts to make some sense” (Strejilevich A Single Numberless Death 169).

Here the act of memory is a form of both healing and activism. By commemorating the past, the participants confirm the failure of the junta to eliminate not only themselves, but of the memory of all its victims. It also confirms the atrocities committed against them and the need to actively combat human rights abuses. As Nora Strejilevich notes in her essay "Beyond the Language of Truth," testimonio becomes a form of cultural and social resistance, both of which are critical components to the ethical recovery of a community (Strejilevich "Beyond the language of Truth" 9). Memory is important as a means of healing and a means of prevention.