Photographic Representation: Negotiating Sites of Memory in Eduardo Rovner’s ¿Una foto...?

Abstract

Eduardo Rovner’s ¿Una foto…? (Argentina, 1977) tells the superficially benign tale of a husband and wife who try to make their baby smile for a photograph. The play (dedicated, incidentally, to those who refused to smile) employs family as a metaphor for a nation forced into appearances of well-being through whatever means necessary, with the photograph serving as proof of that well-being. This study focuses on the photograph in ¿Una foto…? as a “site of memory” and argues that the photo that the characters attempt to take of their baby, the most innocent and vulnerable character on the stage, stands in for the outward appearances of a stable and content nation, whatever the cost of creating that appearance. Although the photograph represents familial stability and happiness, the process, as a “site of memory” played out on stage, reveals a more sinister truth behind the arrival at the final product.