This article describes and analyzes the process of an investigation focused on the enhancement of a diverse documentary corpus that contains unpublished material about the experience of defending human rights in Arica during the dictatorship. Through an archival methodology, preventive conservation actions, and the recovery of collective memory through the testimony of people linked to the city’s humanitarian organizations, we managed to save various local records from the risk of permanent loss, as well as gain insight into their context of production and circulation. In this sense, we argue that, thanks to the existence of these records and access to their consultation, we now have a heterogeneous documentary heritage of memory that reflects the experience of State terrorism in Arica and the region, which represents an invaluable contribution to the study of recent history and the transmission of counter-official memories of State terrorism.
