In a period marked by the 50th anniversary of the civil-military coup, memory becomes an urgent and active commitment for the feminist writers' collective AUCH+. Through its Reading Promotion Commission, the collective is spearheading "All Alive in Memory," a poetic and audiovisual tribute to women who were detained, disappeared, and executed for political reasons, including those who were pregnant at the time of their abduction. "It is painful work; it hurts to read their stories, and it burns to rescue these memories of flesh and blood," says Cecilia Aretio, the project coordinator and a professional at the Usach Psychological Care Center.
Since 2024, the AUCH+ team has created 48 texts—poems, letters, and stories—as a tribute to women murdered by state agencies. Thirteen of these pieces are dedicated to pregnant women, whose memory is doubly devastated. "Each story is unique; for some, there is quite a lot of information, for others, almost nothing. The latter has also been deeply moving," says Cecilia Aretio, who has been part of the collective since its foundation.
The texts have been transformed into two- to four-minute audiovisual clips that combine images, voice, and written words. "This project has been created out of pure love, one hundred percent pro bono," Aretio emphasizes. The clips were first shared on La Voz de los que sobran's Instagram and the social media accounts of AUCH+, and are now expanding to new spaces and platforms.
The "All Alive in Memory" project is more than just an emotional appeal; it's a political and cultural gesture that shines a light on a little-known part of history: the story of women who fought and resisted during the dictatorship. "Delving into the life story of each woman who was politically assassinated is a necessary act, one that is both distressing and moving," Aretio says. "It is a challenge that we take on with ethical, socio-political, and gender responsibility."
The project has a special connection with the University of Santiago, formerly UTE, now recognized as a site of memory. “It makes perfect sense to distribute these capsules in university spaces such as Usach,” says Aretio. One of those honored is Michelle Peña Herreros, a former student of the university who was kidnapped while eight months pregnant.
Collective writing was essential to shaping the tribute. Twenty writers from different generations contributed to the texts, each with their unique style. "We wrote in a poetic and narrative style, depending on the literary genre each author chose," Aretio explains. This diversity also enriches the story: some writers lived through the dictatorship, while others reconstructed memories through research or oral tradition. The project's plans are still going strong. By the second half of 2025, AUCH+ plans to hold readings in schools and turn the clips into a visual exhibition with giant posters and audio. The collective also plans to publish a book compiling the texts, which they hope to make available in public libraries throughout the country." It is a message of solidarity for families, but also a warning for the generation that did not experience the coup," says Aretio. "Healing a political trauma of this magnitude takes several generations."
Some families have received the tributes with emotion and gratitude. Aretio recalls cases, such as the daughter of Gloria Esther Lagos Nilsson and the grandniece of Sonia Bustos, both of whom contacted the authors to express their gratitude for the texts. "I feel like she wrote this text herself," one family member wrote, deeply moved.
Through words, All Alive in Memory transforms the silence imposed by horror into a chorus that disturbs, embraces, and resists—because writing is also a way of not forgetting.