Search

This paper inquires into the production of memories on violent events in two Antioquia municipalities, which from the 80's have shown alarming violence indicators. Thus, in the municipality of San Carlos violent events memories are framed within a context of a catholic society having homogeneous economic conditions, elites historically pertaining to the Conservative party, accelerated development processes, and living under hegemonic armed rule. In this scenario a certain consensus is achieved in the narrative of violence, aiming at dignifying victims and highlighting the high costs armed confrontation entails. In the municipality of Apartadó, violence memory is framed within a pluri-ethnic, lay and marginal society, immerse in accelerated development processes and unstable armed rule. There, a split memory is produced, featuring political identities routinizing and eventually justifying violent events. In the face of these cases, an attempt is made to keep the reflection on what kind of memories are required to stop reproducing war? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to show, in first instance, the existence of some "artifacts" as devices of memory, born out from various exercises conducted among communities having undergone violence. These devices are the "living" embodiment of underground memories that were gathered within various inquiry and extension projects by the research group. In the second part, a more theoretical reflection is put forward on the Memory/ Power relationship as the frame of discussion within which these experiences are situated, emphasizing two aspects: making visible those "spaces of power" where both memories are situated within today's Colombian society so as to show specifically how those spaces of power appear, as well as the instruments they make use of, qualifying memories either as dominant or underground; and to show those spaces, just like any other social process, are not immutable or unchangeable phenomena, but are prone to be transformed, redefined and even reconfigured up to leading all the way to make changes to differently distribute the resources of power leaving their mark on them. In a third final part, a reflection "as a working hypothesis" is made, which could be the way to change the issue at hand and suggest new paths aiming to shift the place in society for those underground (marginal, hidden and scarcely visibilized) memories and make them emerge to surface so that they can develop all of their political potential and get their due place in Colombia's historical memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]