The box above the closet. Documentary and memory in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina (notes about Juan Pi)

Abstract

This article refers to the documentary “La Caja de Arriba del Ropero”. Its director analyzes and shares reflections on photography. The images are ideological constructions that have to do with their historical moment, in this case it is a photographer who leaves a legacy, although the narrators in the film and those who preserve the heritage are all women. But in addition, a film is a journey through time and in that it makes a journey through episodes of the life of Juan Pi, the photographer who portrayed San Rafael from the moment the train arrived in that city of Mendoza (Argentina). The trip to the past goes to the pre-Hispanic stage in that area, describing what is omitted in the photos, the occupation of land, the campaign of extermination of natives. The construction of a fort as machinery that ended up banishing the native towns from the cities. Finally, the participation as mediator of a woman from the Pehuenche people, La Cacica María Josefa Roco, stands out.