Deep memory: Expressions and Trajectories of social suffering in Colombia

Abstract

Sociopolitical violence in Colombia has affected the lives of direct victims of violence and their relatives, unleashing a chain of social suffering. This suffering is expressed in emotions, memory, and the body, shaping a deep memory. This memory accompanies the relatives in their daily activities, is established in their very being and is difficult to address because is complicated to verbalize and identify it, requiring epistemological shifts that problematize dichotomous thinking and logocentrism; as well as political shifts that situate in the center relatives´ well-being. This article uses feminist epistemologies to approach these shifts, the configuration of a deep memory, and some of the specific elements of the trajectories of the relatives of victims of sociopolitical violence, as well as ways of dealing with it to make relatives’ lives less difficult.