IAI-Mecila conference at the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin explores memory, protest, and political transformation
After the Revolts: Disputed Memories and Possible Futures in Latin America (2019–2025)
February 13th, 2026
In recent years, Latin America has witnessed a powerful wave of popular uprisings that reshaped political debate across the region. Massive mobilizations demanding social justice, equality, and structural reform brought millions of citizens into the streets, opening new horizons of political participation while also generating deep tensions within national societies. Against this backdrop, a lecture at the Ibero-American Institute will explore how these movements continue to influence political imagination, collective memory, and democratic debates in Latin America today.
The cycle of protests that swept across several Latin American countries created a regional moment marked by hope and demands for profound transformation. Yet, in many cases, these mobilizations did not translate into lasting structural reforms. Instead, parts of the region have experienced conservative political shifts, fragmentation within popular movements, and the emergence of more punitive forms of governance seeking to contain or redefine the energy unleashed by the uprisings. The electoral success of Chile’s far right—linked historically to the Pinochet era—illustrates the complex and often contradictory outcomes of these processes.
In her lecture, Isabel Piper of the University of Chile, currently a visiting researcher at the Ibero-American Institute, proposes to analyze these developments through the lens of collective memory. Her approach examines how the meanings of revolt are constructed, circulated, and contested across borders and local contexts. Taking Chile as a starting point, she interprets the uprising not as a concluded historical episode but as an open threshold capable of reshaping political sensibilities and redefining visions of justice, while remaining connected to similar experiences throughout Latin America.
The analysis is structured around three central axes: the resistance strategies that shaped the uprisings, the ways these resistances are remembered and reinterpreted in the present, and the emerging debates surrounding democracy and human rights. By addressing these dimensions, the lecture raises challenging questions about the legacy of recent mobilizations—what was achieved, what was lost, and what possibilities remain unfinished. These reflections invite audiences to reconsider how collective memories of protest can inform present political action and future democratic horizons.
Held in Spanish at the Ibero-American Institute, the event offers an opportunity for dialogue on one of the most pressing political and social questions facing Latin America today: how societies remember moments of rupture and how those memories shape future possibilities. By revisiting the meanings of revolt and its ongoing consequences, the lecture encourages critical reflection on the paths toward more inclusive and just futures in the region.
