Registro de la memoria colectiva del conflicto armado en Colombia: un estado de la cuestión

In: BiD: Textos Universitaris de Biblioteconomia i Documentació, Heft 28, S. 1-8

Abstract

Objectives. To investigate the relationship between memory and archive records established by researchers of the Colombian armed conflict.
Methodology. Taking a state-of-the-art perspective, this paper analyses the secondary information produced and disseminated in Colombia in the last decade related to the collective memory of the conflict. This study of the production of documents allows us to identify the characteristics present in the description, analysis and interpretation that researchers make. In other words, rather than a simple compilation and organisation of the respective studies, we formulate hypotheses and suggest future paths for studying the records.
Results. This article is based on an assessment of the research undertaken in the last decade in Colombia that take expressions of collective memory as their focus in analysing the armed conflict. In the specific case of the archives, the studies analysed allow us to make a diagnosis of the current situation regarding the protection of human rights in the country. Three main themes emerge: first, the need to build an inventory of human rights records, which represent a very broad and disperse heritage, among which are included: the records of the government, those of organizations of victims and relatives and of human rights defence groups, of investigative commissions and law courts, as well as those held in private collections focused on individuals involved in the conflict or which address topics related to the conflict. Second, there is an obvious urgency to compile the materials and organize the heritage, among which are to be found the documents that report the ephemeral testimonies of the victims, which have served to support the researchers in their work. Third and finally, the importance of thinking from within the perspective provided by the archival sciences is more than apparent, given the fundamental role played by the records as the memory and testimony of society, especially in a country that has suffered such violence and where the victims more often than not have no documents that help them assert their rights.