El activismo de las víctimas del incendio del club Kiss: evento traumático, causa pública y conflictos morales

Abstract

This article addresses the activism of victims' relatives of the Kiss nightclub fire that took place in Santa Maria, in south Brazil, in 2013 causing 242 deaths. I have been accompanying for the past three years the actions carried out by the Santa Maria do Luto à Luta movement. I focus here on the relationship between this movement and the government, by analyzing the public health policies and the conflict emerged since the incident between the movement and the Ministério Público, a government institution which is responsible for watching over diffuse and individual rights in its own local sphere. What this conflict points out is the fact that the State's omission enhances the perception of the event as traumatic by those who have been affected by it. My research converses with several other anthropological works that also focus, in some way or another, on the relationship between victims' movements and the State in order to emphasize the connection between suffering, the State's neglect and the construction of a cause. In my own work, I take notice of some forms of legitimation of the victim's discourse, created by family members as they fight the derrogatory claims of "madness" thrust upon them. Finally, I take a look on the broader debates about the victim's place in public space and the language of suffering as a way of positioning oneself politically. The relationship with the State also offers some insights regarding the production of the subjectivities of those involved with the Kiss event; it is through this production, precisely, that the event will be interpreted.