Historical memory and community self-management as an emancipatory strategy against conflict and official history. Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, Colombia

Abstract

History is a sample of the most important events, but it can be quietly integrated into projects that advance towards their own objectives. When the conditions imposed by a history of conflict prevail, only two options are given: either subordinate to the dominant discourse or go through a free history. In Colombia and Latin America, history has been subordinated to various hegemonic discourses that, through violent languages, have imposed the most convenient imaginaries for excluding interests that deny the memory and voice of the oppressed. The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá Antioqueño-Colombia, reflects the experience of a community, which in the urgency of creating another story that confronts the hostile “official” story and reclaims its memory, built a whole project of community self-management that denies the logic of a historical conflict that has invariable violence and impunity.