Abstract

Introduction: The forced disappearance of peasants in the commune of Paine, Chile, dates back to the first months after the coup d’état in 1973. Ten years ago, a judicial investigation revealed the location of a mass grave that led to the identification of detainees who had disappeared; eleven using genetic methods, along with another five recognized based on forensic archaeological evidence. Our main objective is to give an account of the consequences of the forced disappearance and concealment in three generations of relatives of disappeared detainees. Methods: A qualitative case study was conducted between 2014 and 2015, with a total of nineteen interviewees across three generations, belonging to six families in Paine. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, with two to three sessions per interviewee and three focus groups, one for each generation. Results: There are differences in the way the three generations deal with disappearance and attribute meaning to bone remains.Whereas in the first, generation the »duty to recognize« is prominent, in the second, what dominates is silence, and in the third, the processes of collective grief. In the experiences of intergenerational dialogue, spaces of memory have come to the fore. At last, one of the outstanding results of this investigation has been to give an account of the social experience of forensic identification. Conclusions: Forced disappearance and the operation of concealment straddle trans-generational effects, among which, voids of representation, silences, and the installation of doubt over the certainty of death stand out.The third generation questions the silences of their predecessors and creates the conditions for intergenerational dialogue, which is expressed particularly through collective commemoration rituals. Through DNA analysis, science offers the statistical evidence of forensic identification, but the decision remains in the individual jurisdiction of each family member.