Children, Archives, Testimonies and Memories in La Caja Topper by Nicolás Gadano and Villa Olímpica by Sebastián Kohan Esquenazi

Abstract

The objective of this article is to problematize the form of testimony that two “Argenmex” sons carry out in the novel by Nicolás Gadano, La caja Topper (2019), and the documentary Villa Olímpica (2022) by filmmaker Sebastián Kohan Esquenazi. We observe how the children testify from a work with the story that considers specific archives. In the case of the novel, the Topper box (as an object) storages letters and documents of the family and it is the youngest son, the narrator, who is the owner of that box. In Villa Olímpica, the director documents through the voices of other sons, Chileans and Argentines, who talk about what it was like to leave Mexico, after having spent part of their childhood and adolescence or even having been born on Mexican land. We distinguish a use of the archive in connection with the objects of the past that their parents have bequeathed them. The authors propose to re-signify the processes of construction of narrative memories that enable the meanings of the past (Jelin, 2021). Testimony does not disregard the idea of “construction” of that past and its uses (Nofal, 2016). We will focus on “Argenmex” children, that is, those who were born in Mexico or Argentina and today harbour a sense of belonging to both homelands.