Abstract

VALENCIA GUTIERREZ, Alberto. The process of construction of the memory of the 1950s in Colombia. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2017, vol.40, suppl.1, pp.65-82. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v40n1Supl.65907.

The article discusses the process of construction of the memory of La Violencia (the Violence) of the 1950s (the period of a deathly struggle between liberals and conservatives), which took place during the National Front. The starting point of the paper is the idea that when memory comes to the forefront at both the national and international levels, it becomes necessary to read the events of political life in these terms. Another one of its underlying assumptions is that memory is not a mere search for the truth about what happened, but rather an elaboration at the service of multiple political interests, whether in favor of liberation or of domination, in which both victims and victimizers participate.

The text identifies three fields of elaboration of memory and defines three forms of remembrance during the National Front: the memory of the numerous recriminations between conservatives and liberals; the representation of La Violencia as a type of social cataclysm, in the shape of an impersonal and blind force; and the consideration of the period as that of a cruel dictatorship that serves as a memory that conceals the atrocities perpetrated. The mainstream press, headed by the newspaper El Tiempo played a fundamental role in the construction of this last form of memory. The article concludes that La Violencia has not been truly integrated into the plot of national history and that the National Front launched a process of invention of forgetfulness that has made what happened unintelligible for the younger generations.

Keywords : bipartisanship; conflict; dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla; National Front; memory; La Violencia; Colombia.

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