True Lies

A satirical look at truth, the construction of history, and the narratives that seek to establish themselves as collective memory.

True Lies

It seems to be a constant in the vocation of Uruguayan public figures to leave their name linked, at least, to some celebration.
Something like that text often used as the prototype of graffiti: «Lalo was here».
Sometimes, the coincidence is real and the commemorative plaque marking the memorable event is naturally associated with the politician’s name.
On other occasions, history has actually been forced to make it coincide with the ruler’s wishes.
That is what this piece is about.
Truth and History are two ladies in perpetual tension.
From there to thinking or acting as though one believed it possible to find a synthesis, there is a considerable distance.
Marxist behavior pretends to have achieved such a synthesis.
Simply because Marx came up with it, that is already sufficient cause.
And I say behavior because there is a considerable distance between it and thought.
One may perceive oneself as profoundly anti-Marxist and yet behave as one.
Truth, from this conception, is not something that «is», but something that «is made».
It is equivalent to taking a blender, putting tomatoes in it, adding water, turning it on, and presenting the mixture as orange juice.
In real Marxism, the totalitarian State will serve the juice and everyone will have to say, under penalty of punishment for a hate crime, that it is the best orange smoothie they have ever had.
The idea is that truth should triumph over falsehood, but in this world that is not so evident.
As far as history is concerned, modern technology has nevertheless made it possible to dispel shadows surrounding historical events that had been accepted as true for many years.
In the case at hand, two researchers from the prestigious University of Miskatonic have made a shocking discovery.
For reasons of prudence, given that it is something that radically changes the beliefs of millions of people, only entities with agreements in place have been informed.
This material would modify history in such a way that it would force us to undertake an immediate revision.
Traditionally, attention has been drawn to the limited space women have had to carry out activities considered to belong to men.
This, it is said, is a constant across all cultures.
Which makes the concealment of a woman who could be compared to a mixture of Leonardo da Vinci, Pedro de Mendoza, or Hernán Cortés a singular event.
So much so that it can only be explained by the collusion of governments and historians with the malicious intention of maintaining the primacy of the oppressive heteropatriarchal system.

Digging Through the Shelves

On August 23, 1932, a fire destroyed the corresponding section of the Miskatonic library.
Few would have imagined that an error made by an employee at some point before the fire would preserve for posterity part of that important document.
It is a handwritten text that historians H. P. Wells and Orson Lovecraft attribute to Francisco Albo or Antonio Pigafetta.
We will transcribe the fragment that reached our editorial desk anonymously: just an envelope with no return address slipped under the door.
We will share the document by Doctors Wells and Lovecraft.
And we will make it public with the appropriate reservations regarding its origin.
Could that document found in the labyrinthine shelves of the ancient University of Miskatonic give Uruguayan history a Copernican turn?
We will see in the next article

Truth and historical construction
Power and public narrative
Memory and revisionism

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