A Site of Memory: José Chávez Morado’s Homenaje al rescate

Abstract

In the present text I analyze the mural Homenaje al rescate (1989) by José Chávez Morado located at the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI in Mexico City. the work represents the devastating earthquake that had taken place just a few years ago, in 1985, and it is interpreted as an example of art in order to preserve historical memory, and to elaborate traumas, not only individual, but social as well, creating at the same time a collective identity which favors the process of elaborating mourning. 

Keywords: José Chávez Morado, 1985 earthquake, memory, cultural trauma, mourning.