Remembering Place: Memory and Violence in Medellin, Colombia

8/12/2019 Remembering Place: Memory and Violence in Medellin, Colombia

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Remembering Place: Memory and Violence

in Medellin, Colombia

Plac e-he art-m em ory here is a genuine m ysterium conliautumiswhich yields heart

as the place of memory, memory as the place where heart is left, heart as what is

left of remembered place.

Edward Case), 'Getting Placed: Soul in Space

In

the city of Medellin stories dwell in parks, bars, and corner stores; they

circulate through streets and avenues and are organized in reference to ke

mnemonic landmarks such as billboards, buildings, ravines or hills. Memo-

ries are bound to place, dwelling in natural and urban landscapes, in local site

and chronological referents and in sensorial and biographical environments.

But it is also within place

abstract

Th is article examines the connec tions between

people, memories and violence through an eth-

nog raph ic a ccou nt of the ways places are rendered

m eaningful in M edellin, C olom bia. In this city,

daily life has been profoundly affected by a multi-

layered violent conflict where multiple armed ac-

tors,

scenarios and forms of violence interplay. Th e

article describes practices of place-making such as

landmarking, place-naming, soundscaping, and

imagining that invest places with significance and

maintain a local implicit knowledge that allows

circulation and survival in the city. T hr ou gh these

practices of place-making, memory has become a

bridging practice that restores a sense of place to

the experience of displacement that violence in-

flicts in peoples lives. These processes, however,

arc at risk of becoming emptied of meaning b\

the power of widespread violences to suppress and

fragment and b\ the wa\s terror and fear are re-

making, the social landscape.

and territorial references

tha t M edellin's city dwell-

ers can better describe the

tangible presence of vio-

lence in their lives. For

res iden t s o f Medel l in .

where the last 20 years of

d rug - re l a t ed , po l i t i ca l

and ev en day violence

have pro fou nd ly affected

daily life, the immediacy

of the "here or in the

not-so-far 'there" marks

the places and stories of

death, the marks of vio-

lence on physical struc-

tures and physical bodies,

and the invisible bound-

aries that define areas of

no circulation. \ lolence

,:

[,iw: A:, ,

^

1 ' 6

top;right

l

2002 \meric.in \nthropologicil A

276 Journal of Latin Am erican Anthropology


2/34

Pilar Riano-Alcala

Instituto Colombiano de

Antropologia e Historia

dwells and circulates in the street, the block or in residents ho m es, o pe ratin g

as a displacing and segregating force. As in a palimpsest, these places have

become m ne m on ic marks where layers of mem ories overlap. Places are m arked

by memories of death, destruction or fighting as they can be haunted by im-

ages of horror and destruction, but the memories of group rituals, local myths

or collective moments of encounter inhabit these places as well.

This article explores these connections between people, memories and

violence through an eth-

nographic account of the

cu l tu ra l p rac t i ces by

which places are rendered

meaningful in Medellin,

Colom bia. Located in an-

thropological debates on

the cultural dimensions

of violence, the art icle

approaches violence as a

lived experience. It exam -

ines how individuals re-

create cultural strategies

and practices when faced

with the uncertainties of

thei r l iv ing condi t ions

under widespread v io -

l en c e ( W a r r e n 1 9 9 3 ) .

The article specifically

explores how places are

culturally constructed b

resumen

El a r t i cu lo ex am ina l as re lac iones en t re

individuos, memorias y violencia a traves de una

descripcion etnografica de los modos en que los

lugares adquieren significado para los residentes

de Medellin, Colombia. En esta ciudad, la vida

diaria ha sido profundamente afectada por un

conflicto violento en el que interactiian diversos

actores armados, escenarios y formas de violencia.

Se describen practicas de construccion de lugares

que marcan el paisaje , nombran los lugares ,

inscriben el paisaje sonoro y la imaginacion y los

revisten de significado m ientras que m antien en un

saber local que permite circular y sobrevivir en la

ciudad. Desde es tas pract icas la memoria se

transforma en una practica puente que restaura

un s en t id o de luga r a la ex per ienc ia de

desplazamiento impuesta por las violencias. Sin

embargo, estos procesos se encuentran en riesgo

de perder sentido por el poder fragmentador de

las multiples violencias y por los modos en que el

terror y el miedo estan rehaciendo el

paisaje

social.

Rem embering Place: Mem ory and Violence 277


3/34

Medellm's city dwellers, and how city dwellers invest these places with signifi-

can ce wh ich I will refer t o as "sense of place."

M em ory in this article constitutes a guiding the m e and a m ethodological

tool to examine the lived experience of violence. Here are examined the ways

in which memory has preserved some of the secrets of the cultural and social

survival of Medellfn's city dwellers and the workings and politics of memory

in a society where violent practices have silenced many areas of daily life. I

argue that in the city of Medellm, memory has become a bridging practice

that allows city dwellers to make sense of the living environment as a vivid

social and relational milieu. Practices of memory, in this context, restore a

sense of place to the experiences of displacem ent, d iscon tinuity an d fragmen-

tation that violence inflicts on people's lives.

Medellin: Conflicts and Violences

Medellin is the capital of the Department of Antioquia and the second

largest city in C olo m bia . Located in th e Valley of Ab urra at 1,600 m eters, the

city is surrounded by mountains and tropical jungle vegetation. In the 1980s,

M edellin becam e the strategic centre for the opera tions of the powerful M edellin

cartel, undergoing a dramatic social transformation.

1

Youth, in particular,

joined gangs, becamesicarios (hired assassins) or part of an underground net-

w ork o f illegal services for organized c rim e. W h e n the M edellin cartel de-

clared war on the state (early 1990s), bombs and the killing of high profile

politicians from the left and the right, of judges, of ministers and political

activists proliferated in the country.

Death statistics and victim profiles changed dramatically on a local and

national level. The victims of homicide were now mostly men (90 percent)

between 13 and 3 8 years old (85 percent) [Cam acho and Gu zm an 1990]. By

1985, homicide became the first cause of death in the country, a trend that

remains through today. Colombia had become one of the most violent coun-

tries wo rldw ide, reac hing a yearly average of 77 ho m icides per 100 ,000 people.

By 1991, the city of Medellin was showing a much bleaker picture, reaching a

rate of381 homicides per 100,000 people (Corporaci6n Regi6n 1999).

Since th e end o f the eighties, the proliferation and grow th of the n ational

guerrilla groups and the paramilitary groups also had a major impact in the

city of M edellin.

2

On a national level, the two leftist guerrilla groups, particu-

larly the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolu-

tionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (Eje*rcito de Liberaci6n

Nac ional, or Nationa l Liberation Army ), dem onstrated a steady growth in the

nu m be r of co m ba tants , controlled territories, an d subversive actions. T h e right-

wing paramilitary groups financed by rich landowners and drug cartels, ex-

panded through the national landscape and consolidated in a national organi-



4/34

zation, the A U C (Autodefensas U nidas de Co lom bia, or United Self-Defense

Forces of Colombia). The urban militias that originally emerged as a form of

urban guerrilla gained a strong territorial presence in the barrios of Medellfn.

The urban militias respresented a unique mixing of political actor and orga-

nized gang with a self-proclaimed mission to protect the barrios from youth

gangs and petty crime (Ceballos 2000). Death squads continued with their

"cleanup" cam paigns directed m ainly at those w ho were associated with either

the guerrilla, the consu m ption of drugs or the perpetration o f crime (Com ision

de Estudios sobre la Violencia 1992). During the time of my fieldwork, the

two main local armed actors were the militias and the youth gangs. Both

groups had a territorial presence in the barrios of Medellm, fighting over con-

trol of territories.

Place-Making: Memory Landscapes and Landmarks

D u r i n g a m e m o r y w o r k s h o p

3

with youth workers from the ci ty of

Medellfn,

4

Hector, a you th worker and a poet, stands up in front of the g roup

to name a place in the city that triggers significant memories and emotions to

him

5

:

Hector: Playa Avenue .. . Th ere is a tim e I remem ber, tha t has marked m e,

that has marked this city, and it is between '87 and '89, in this city there

were at least ten poetry workgroups, and I remember once, in one week,

we launched seven poetry magazines, and I remember it was precisely the

same time when they were doing so much KILLING in Medell in, [but]

there were also many poetry readings [...] So one would leave a recital at

the National [University] and then the next day go to another at the

Antioquia [University], and then back to the one at the Medellin [Uni-

versity] and there was a moment, during the famous curfew, the worst,

worst

m om en t, th e day that Juan Go m ez [the city's mayor] lifted the cu r-

few.., that was a recital that no one missed. Playa Avenue was packed, it

was amazing, and we rolled out poem s, we rolled out tragedy and that day

wewa nted to pay trib ute [his voice breaks] to a friend..., o ne of the you ngest

poets, they killed him and anotherpekdo (kid) aro un d O rien tal [avenue]

..., he was smoking

bareta

(pot) an d after tha t [crying]... they institu tion -

alized Poetry in Medellfn, and everything ended up in a goddamned fes-

tival... [silence]

6

Hector's sense of this place is made from the memory of an intense lived

experience as well as from the e m otio ns a nd im ages bro ug ht forward by events

like the death of his friend, the commemorative act, the presence of poetry in

the streets, and the city curfew. The years Hector is making reference to were

brought up in almost every session or interview I had with Medellfns city

Remem bering Place: Memory and Violence 279


5/34

dwellers. For some, those were the feared times of "the bombs" when the

Medellfn dr ug cartel im pose d a climate of terror in the cou ntry to pressure the

government to reverse the extradition of Colombians to United States. Every-

day life was affected quite dramatically for all those living in Medellfn, as the

prob ability of a bo m b anyw here in th e city was very real. He ctor's narrative is

also revealing of other circumstances that took place during those years. Po-

etry survived a nd coexisted with violence, poetry circulated on the streets that

were often the site of the explosions, poetry defied the city curfew, and poetry

also suffered the pain of death.

In He ctor's narrative, the physical space of the avenue takes on new m ean-

ing, one that is not restricted to spatial boundaries but re-created in memory

by his sensorial experience of having been there at the poetry recitals and

conmemoration. It introduces us to some of the ways in which Medellfn city

dwellers encoun ter an d m ake places: by remem bering a nd reconstructing what

happened there through storytelling, by drawing out specific kinds of knowl-

edge about life in the city, by apprehending their physical uniqueness, by

naming or renaming these places, by establishing landmarks; and, as Hector

says,

by recognizing the ways that places and events have "marked" them.

Sensing of place is on e of the m ost basic dim ension s of hum an experience

and one that is highly informative of our relationship with the environment

and the landscapes that surround us (Basso 1997; Casey 1996). Places consti-

tute physical, social and sensorial realms for our actions, but for our memo-

ries and imaginations as well. Place-making is a cultural activity that all of us

"do" in order to locate ourselves meaningfully in the environment we interact

with. My inquiry into place-making is concerned with the capacity of places

like the streets and avenues of Medellfn to trigger memory and imagination,

to connect people to a sense of history and to reveal some of the ways by

which we come to define who we are and where our sense of rootedness and

belonging come from.

The Memory of Things Seen

For the ancient Aztecs, in tlilli, in tlapalli, la tinta negrayroja d e sus codices were

the colors symbolizing escritura y sabiduria [...] An image is a bridge between

evoked emotion s and conscious knowledge ; words are cables tha t hold up the

bridge. Images are more direct, more immediate than words, and close to the

unconscious. I write the m yth in m e, the m yths I am , the myths I want to become.

The word, the image and the feeling have a palatable energy, a kind of power.

Con imagenes domo mi miedo, cruzo los abismos que tengo por dentro.

Gloria Anzaldua,

Tlilli,

Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black-Ink"

In a memory workshop with youth from Barrio Antioquia,

7

I now hear

Jennifer, a young woman born in the barrio. She had constructed an image

(see Fig. 1) out of cut-outs and placed it on a square base for a memory quilt



6/34

about the war. 1 he st on she tells is framed in landscape and topo grap hic

referents, and

reveals

the seasonal experience that walking and street wander-

ing have for these \outh. Jennifer shows her image, created with intense red

and black colours of

a

street in the barrio and at night:

Jennifer: I want here to represent the night. That day they had killed m\

best friend C am ilo . Lets see, that da}' I was sleeping in my ho use , and he

knew he couldn't go there [to an alley] because he knew they were tr) ing

to kill him, but I don't know,cuando uno se vd a monr la muerte lo

bused

(when you're going to die then death will find you ). T ha t day he was over

there and when he got to the corner they were waiting for him and they

killed him , the n the boys ran in and dragged him out of there up to

25

th

, and then got to the corner where I live, then my little sister ran in

and woke me up and told me: "Jennifer, Jennifer, they killed Camilo.

W he n I got outside they had him halfway dow n the block, and so I couldn't

really do anything, I left and went with them to the hospital but he was

already dead ; tha t day they killed ano the r guy too . So ... with m \ dra wing

I want to express my sadness when I realized that they had killed my

friend.

Fig. 1. Jennifer's drawing.

Remembering Place; \Iem or\ and \i o le m e 281


7/34

In representing the event of the death of her friend, Jennifer captures

through colour and form, and later through narration, the meaning and im-

pact of this event in he r life. As she describes the n ight the event happ ene d, we

understand that it is the memory of an intense visual, sensorial and placed

experience that assists Jennifer in creating her image. This is the memory of

"things seen" that illustrates the dialectical relationship between memory and

image production and the ways they inform and operate through each other

(Melion and Kuchler 1991).

Jennifer's image is a powerful one that gives central importance to those

physical features of the place where her friend was killed and the place where

she last saw him . Thr ou gh a striking com bination of colours and forms, Jen-

nifer maps her emotions in the walls and streets. This centrality of streets is

certainly one that stands out for any visitor to Barrio Antioquia, as it has the

widest streets I have ever seen in a low-income barrio in Colombia. In con-

trast to the great majority of low-income neighbourhoods, Barrio Antioquia

is located in a central area of the city. It is laid out on flat terrain and sur-

rounded by Medellin's old airport and the industrial district. In Jennifer's

image, the action takes place in the middle of the street. These are streets

widely used for social and recreational purposes and they play a central role in

the social life of the barrio. Their importance is now celebrated in a yearly

festival called "Calles de C ultu ra" (Streets of Cu ltu re ). Th e festival brings people,

local schools, institutions and organizations together in a celebration with

music, street parades and troupes, poetry, mimes, art and local economic ac-

tivities. The Calles de Cultura festival, the Easter and Virgen del Carmen

processions, the Halloween parade and the Christmas celebrations are all rec-

ognized as "neutral" events respected by everyone. The tacit agreement for

everyone in the barrio is that these activities are not to be disrupted with any

kind of violence and that these are occasions where circulating through the

entire b arrio w ith the pa rade is possible. T h e lan dm arks in Jennifer's image are

also attac hed to specific physical structu res, to b uilding s such as M edias Cristal,

the site of a sock/garment factory where many people of the barrio work, to

landscape features such as the trees, and to the streets and alleys where resi-

dents can or cannot walk.

Jennifer's story also reveals the weakening effects of violence on spaces

like the streets that have represented for barrio's residents places of meaningful

social interac tion. T h e tran sform ation of streets into territories of bloody vio-

lence is an expression of the multiple forms in which violence is experienced

by Med ellin's residents. A significant nu m be r of M edellm's residents have been

displaced from their homes as a consequence of the territorial violence and

the direct impact that macro violences (drug-related, politically inspired or

those of state repression) are having in marking defined cartographies of ter-



8/34

ror and fear across the city. The arrival in Medellm of large numbers of inter-

nally displaced people who are escaping terror and violence from rural areas

and small towns, combined with the lack of local and national strategies to

address the internal displacement problem, have produced a multifolded cri-

siswith clear re-territorializing effects.

10

A notorious aspei t of the urban trans-

formation of M edellin is seen in the ways that a territor becom es no t only

the stage for confrontations but it also symbolizes pow :r, [...]

1

he territory

has become for the whole city, the most immediate regi ler of the oscillations

of w ar' (Villa 1 998 :2). In this changing urban landscape M edellins residents

struggle to maintain a sense of coherence through practices of m em ory and place-

making;.

S o u n d s c a p i n g

Music is a key element of the barrios of Medellins soundscape. Music

blasts from buses, houses, corner stores and bars without seeming to create

anv conflict or bother anyone. The scene of two gigantic speakers standing

outside a house loudly playing salsa, ballads or disco music is common in

many barrios. Musical sounds, it can be said, are very much engraved in place

and are key descriptors of the ways places are sensed. Nidier, a male youth

from Barrio Antioquia, brought to my attention the power of music to recall

past events and to describe collective feelings and social memories. His idea

was that music is the key tool for activating youth's remembering because

music has the power to take one back in time and place. During the work-

shop, Nidier constructed a quilt image (see Fig. 2) in which he re-creates a

green area on the outskirts of Barrio Antioquia, an area with very old trees and

a ravine. Nidier describes, Fig

2.

Nidter's

drawing

Rem embering Place: Memory and Violence 283


9/34

Nidier: Here I represent that time, OK? Like the time was ofla vioUncia

(the violen ce), anyw ay this here was like a ravine, [in] th e La Cu eva sector.

Yeah, so then all this was all bush, the river, the ravine, anyway. So I

represented this because me and a buddy, actually one time, me and a

bunch of buddies were there, everyoneen sudiscurso (minding their own

business), talking, and one of them made this comment: "The day that I

die put this record on, because it signifies everything" [Nidier plays the

song "Siem pre Alegre" of Rap hie L eavitt]. So this record, it always brings

me good memories

11

:

One has to pass through life always happy

After one dies what is it worth

You have to enjoy all the pleasures

Nobody knows when one is going to die

As life is short I live it

And enjoy it with wine and women

I have to spend my life always happy

Ay le lo lay, le lo lay [coro]

Ay le lo lay always happy.

I don't want you to cry for me when I die

If you have to cry for me do it while I live.

12

Nidier's image brings the sound landscape to the making and sensing of

place. In his narrative and through his image, soundscapes (the sounds of the

natural environment, their conversation and the music), the setting, and the

events are brought together as important elements of his remembering. The

memory of his dead friend is recreated in the natural landscape and it is fully

evoked through listening and playing the song. The lyrics of the song deliver

a message of "how life should be lived," and this message is passed on to the

experience of place. The lesson is supported by a logic that eases the immi-

nence th at d eath has for these you th by stressing the message of life as a simp le

matter of enjoyment.

13

Songs, in particular, have a cycle of social life that gives them representa-

tional and documentary capacities; furthermore, they can provide guidance

to the ways that places are sensed and constructed. The social life of songs

makes reference to the periods when the song is listened to most and to the

specific events that took place during those periods. When the song is played

again later, the events are recalled.

The t imes of party and celebrat ion are another source of soundscape

m em ory. O n e of the rem em bered times in Barrio An tioquia is wh en the "en-

tire" barrio learned to dance the Brazilian lambada in the eighties and when

the oppressive presence of violence ma de a m ark in th e m em ory of this music

and the places it was heard.



10/34

Journa l entry June I9

h

, 1997. Mem ory

workshop

with a

group

of30 wom en

and two m en from theTraining Centre BarrioAntioquia :

Sandra, a widow in her twenties with two girls, plays a tape ofLambada

music. The response to the rhythm is immediate and everyone begins

clapping, moving, swinging left and right against each other and laugh-

ing. Aura and Sandra end up dancing in front of everyone. They dance

making wide pelvic movements, lifting their legs up and dow n, and mov-

ing the rest of their bodies to the sensuous rhythm with passionate and

dramatic composure. The others follow them by clapping. Everyone is

laughing and moving. W hen the song finishes, Sandra explains,

Sandra: Ah no... I liked this music a lot, and they danced to it in the

BarrioA ntioquia .Natusha sang it

["What

yearwas

that?"

another person

asks],it was in December of 1989.

We danced it in a line, everyone got up and formed a train, everyone got

up (numerous people talking, shouting, explaining how they danced) ... a

reallyshort skirt showing her belly and her hair

up

in

a

headband ["Natusha

was incredible " says another]

["Even

her clothes "] and everyone in a

little train, dancing. Back then anyone who listened to N atusha was cool,

her clothing was the fashion, they even had contests to see who could

dance like her and imitate her the best.

Omar: ... Back then, with that music in a discotheque they made people

strip and dance naked, and if they didn't do it they killed them ..., itwas in

a disco they called La Orquidea.

Pilar: Who were these people?

O : A gang, back then they were the C hinos [name of the gang] who lived

in

El

Chispero.

14

The lambada soundscape described by Sandra and Omar gives a glimpse

of the barrio's life and mood during a specific period of time. While music

and dance bring everyone together in a community of movement and plea-

sure,

violence enters as an underground marker of the memory and of the

music and places where the lambada was heard and danced. Somehow, the

pervasive presence and memory of violence has not destroyed the intense and

warm memory of the pleasurable times. It is a conflictive coexistence, but

both sets of memories continue to dwell in places. In brief, this troublesome

coexistence names the cultural dynamics at work in places affected by vio-

lence and the ambiguity of ethical and social boundaries that legitimize the

actions of the agents of violence or place them in the realm of the underground.



11/34

Nidier and Jennifer stood in front of the group to tell their stories as did

Sandra with her stones and dance. They told these stories with their bodies,

their movements, their pauses, and their voices. The expressive practice of the

telling and the ways they performed the stories imbued acts, events and ob-

jects with meaning. 1heir bodies rem em bered through the acts of bending,

walking or dancing, while their remembering became a re-enactment of the

events described and an expression of the ways they, as youth, experience and

sense place. It is precisely this sense of place as a realm of embodied experi-

ence that provides youth such as Nidier, Jennifer or Sandra with a sense of

belonging and knowledge that maintain coherence and continuity even when

the}' are faced with death and destruction. This type of place-based explora-

tion of memory and violence provides me with a critical stance for questioning

the disregard in literature on violence for an analysis of the crucial ways in

which memory and place mediate and shape the lived experience of violence.

Dwelling

Memories are always attached to, or inherent in places; place is the house of

memor) and memory is the house of place in the soul.

Michael Perlman,

Imaginal Mem ory and thePlace of Hiroshima

Juan, a youth leader of the Zona Nor Oriental (Northeastern Zone) of

Medellin,

| i

speaks of his experiences with lascasas juveniles(youth houses). Th e

}ou th houses were established in 1990 as one of the initiatives taken by the First

Presidential Office of Medellin to respond to the dramatic situation of violence

affecting the city in those years. Juans image (see Fig. 3) and its story engage us

with the multiple lived relations that youth establish with places and the processes

by which specific locations or physical buildings acquire meaning. Juan describes

his image while recalling several events.

hig. 3. /uiiiis drau ing.



12/34

Juan: Th is hereis thehoriz on, here isalittlesunthatisrising,astreet tha t

goes down, this

is me and

this

a

friend of min e; this

is a

store,

and

here

in

the back, hereisD on a Rubielaand asisterofhers washinga blood stain

thatwas on the

street. Th is

was on the 24 of

December,

at

sunrise

... no,

not

at

sunrise,

it

was already m ornin g.

[...]

From '91, that

is to

say that

we

put together

the

casa juvenil from abo ut

the end

of '89 , Giovanny was

the

last one,

but it

w as

a

kind of a build-up

...

from

a

certain period onw ards

there began

to be

many fights,

a lot of

problems, lots

of

disputes w ithin

the group,

so

many opted,

and we

opted,

to

leave.

But I

want

to

make this

comment about youth work becauselacasa juvenil in that mom ent ,and

I think

it

will always

be

that way,

was not

something carried

out

within

four wallsand a roof. Itwas m oreafeeling, likeakind of duty;in anycase

we'd

all

left

the

casa juvenil

and in

December o f '9 3

we

decided

to put on

an event

in the

barrio.

He goes

on to

describe how, am ong other things, they

got

presents

for the

barrio's poorer children

and how

they gave them away:

So off we went, this

is the

mem ory that

I

have so clearlyatada(tied)

to the

ravine,

we

grabbed

a

huge pile

of

gifts,

a

pile

of

things

we had

ready,

and

we headed

to the

ravine, everything

in

huge bags

and

boxes

["but we did

buy some beautiful wrapping paper," says another], which

we

decorated

and headed

off to the

ravine,

I

remember

now

that

... we

were going

along completely overloaded withstuff, andGiovanny, sincehewas m ore

or less heavy,

or

muscular

(he

said

he was

muscular),

so

Giovanny

was

carryingtwopackages,allfull ofhimself, and theravine was cha nnelledat

a certain angle,

and

bang

he

slipped

and

went down. W he n

he

tried

to

getup the guy was sl ipping back and forth, wejus t sat there looking

at

him and the guy

says "have

you

seen nothing

you

dickheads ,

are

you going

to

help

me or

not?" . . .

but he was

l ike th at . . .

the

following

day [after they

had

delivered

the

presents] ar ou nd sunrise they killed

h i m .

1 7

A sentiment,

"a

feeling"

and "a

kind of duty,"

the

adjectives th at Juan uses

to describethesetting co nveyin all itsrichnessthevarious me anings of "tobe

in place":

it is

about

the

experiencing

and

knowing developed through

the

awareness

and

familiarity of "having been there ,"

it is

about

a

body

in

mot ion

that senses

the

"qualities"

of

places (sounds, smells, events happening, risks,

etc.)

and

that,

in

this case,

is

interpreted by Juan

as a

mem ory "t ied"

to a

place

like

the

ravine.

In

telling the sto ry of his friend

and

their activities, Juan stepp ed

back from hisfamiliar surroun dingsanddaily lifetorecognize with full aware-

ness

how he

sensed places like

the

ravine

or the

youth house.

Remem bering Place: Memory

and

Violence

287


13/34

Juan's story is supposedly about a com munity activity, but it is also about

the killing ofhisfriend and the places where his memories dwell. The narra-

tive is displaced between these two events and an evocation of place that is

tied to his memories of friendship, neighbours and community work; to spe-

cific landm arks like the ravine; and to images like the two neighbours washing

away blood and the thread of blood running down the street; or his friend

hanging from the edge of the gully. The grounding of his relation to places is

one of implacement we are or inhabit places through our bodies, by being

concretely placed there (Casey 1996).

The place of the casas juveniles as one that goes beyond the physical

features to evoke "a feeling" and "a kind of duty" was repeated in many of

the sessions I had with members and ex-members of the youth houses. The

house dwells in memory and in the desire to be together, to be part of a

group. The architecture of a place is symbolically constructed in Juan's

story because for the members of the casas juveniles, the house is, first and

foremost, an emotional construction. The houses changed, they moved from

one location to another, but the idea of the house as a place of friendship,

acceptance and gathering remained. Occasionally, the building itself car-

ries a profound meaning when behind it there is a story of collective effort,

like in the memory of this youth about the collective construction of the

house:

Arley: La casa juvenil ... the last one that I belonged to was right be-

side the church, I actually remember a lot because we built it right

from the ground level, and finished the interior. We all participated, be

that by sweeping up or any small thing, and at the same time each

person felt that this belonged to him, because one didn't just go to

meetings, but also could say I painted this wall, or I swept up this floor

... that was in '92, if I'm not wrong ... I believe that the most glorious

moments of the casa juvenil were then, in that moment, the house was

truly something that one dreamed of, and I'd like that to be the case

today as well.

18

The house as a physical space also became a place of refuge and an

alternative environment to the street:

Cesar: A beautiful thing about "Open Hearts" [the name of one of the

casas] is to have entered the process by connecting with many young

people, because so many of them hung around there,

fumando vicio

(doing drugs), and they were often harassed by the milicianos (urban

militias),

19

[and we would tell them] "if you do that there something

will happen to you," "if you don't change..." anyway, many of them

are no t around here today to tell the story, it was very hard in that time.

20



14/34

Attheheartofthis senseofplacewastherecognition thatitwas "there"

wherethey,asyouth, were able tomake

a

placefor themselvesinsociety. At the

time the youth from the Northeastern Zone (popularly known as

la

Comuna

NorOriental were gaining

a

reputation

as

violent

and as

hired assassins.

A

widespread stereotype

of

violent youth emerged

and

was widely used

to de-

scribeand exclude youth from this zone. In this context ofexclusion,the

finding

of

a place

in the

youth houses profoundly marked these youth

and

provided them withthereferentstomaintainasenseofbelongingand away

to make senseofan extremely difficult periodintheir lives.

The themeofla casa appearedinmany formsin thememoriesofthese

youth.Thehouse servesas a powerful image that evokes refuge, aplaceof

one's

own, and

remarkable memories,

but

also

a way of

inhabiting

and

dwelling. The project of las casas juvenilesas an economic, socialand

cultural alternative for youth involved in the spiral ofviolence ran into

several difficulties.

But

even

if

the project

did not

succeed

in

achieving

the

expected institutional outcomes, the idea of a "houseof our own" took

deep root

in

those

who

participated

and are

still alive. This

way of

place-

making

as an

activity

of

dwelling helps

us

understand that

the

relation

between individuals andplacesis not restricted to itsroleas a contextfor

action.It is a relation that goes beyond, intothewaysin which individuals

become awareof themselves in interaction with the environment thatsur-

rounds them, and into thepower ofplaces to situate individuals in that

environment.

Place Naming

Place-naming

has

been examined

in

anthropological literature

as a key

cultural practice that situates people's mindsin historical timeandspace.It

connects them with their past and bringing forward a repertoire of local

knowledge and stories that connect individuals with a sensuous landscape

and geography (Basso 1997;Cronon 1992;Cruikshank 1990; Fox1997).

This literature

has

pointed

to the

value

of

exploring place-naming

for its

capacity to communicate the conceptual frameworks and verbal practices

with which communities appropriate their geography (Basso 1997). I ex-

amine here the cultural significance ofplace-naming in an urban environ-

ment like Medellin.Theexploration of these practices offers a rich ground

to examine

how

Medellin's residents appropriate

and

make sense

of

their

surrounding environment.

The

impact that disseminated violence

has in

the community's social fabric

and in the

familiar places

of

circulation

and

residence is also discussed.

Moral Lessons and Myth-Names

In September 1997, I was atAna's house with twoother women,one

about thesameage as Ana (around 28yearsold), theother 18yearsold.

Remembering Place: MemoryandViolence 289


15/34

They were talking about a video recording made that day of the barrio's his-

tory. In their conversation, they mentioned El Callejdn del Infierno (Hell's

Alley). I asked them about the name and Ana responded that the name was

given because a muchacho (young man) who was a "drug addict" killed his

mother there. Ana described the muchacho's desperation to get drugs and

how his friends told him that he could only get them if he killed his mother

and brought her heart back. This young man was so desperate for drugs,

Ana emphasized, that he killed his mother with a dagger, pulled her heart

out , and began running. Running through El Callej6n del Infierno, he

stumbled and fell , his mother's heart slipping from his hands. From the

ground, her heart spoke to him:

u

-

t

Mijo se aporrid mucho? (Son, are you

badly hurt?). Ana finishes her story by saying that for this reason the area

is called "El Callej6n del Infierno."

As I listened to Ana, the contents of the story sounded familiar. I men-

tioned to Ana that I had heard the story before somewhere outside Barrio

Antioquia. Ana emphatical ly told me that the story is unique to Barrio

Antioquia. Her grandmother told it for many years and she died several years

ago.

Her friend agreed, but the youngest woman in our group said that she

hadneverhea rd th at story before. An a suggested that I check w ith her m other-

in-law, who also knew the story. I shared the story with a friend and as I retold

it, I remembered where and when I had heard it before. It was in June 1997,

du rin g th e In terna tiona l Poetry Festival that takes place every year in M edellin.

The final night in an open-air theatre, 60 poets from all over the world read

their poems to an audience of more than 2,000 people. One of the poets was

Nedzad Ibrisimovic, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian poet who read a poem that

deeply engaged the public and received a very warm response. His poem was

abo ut a yo uth com bata nt d uring the Balkan war w ho was trapped in the spiral

of war and violence. This young combatant kills his mother, pulls her heart

out, runs and falls dow n. O n the floor her heart asks whether he is all right.

Many lessons can be derived from this story, particularly in an environ-

m en t like Barrio Antioq uia where d rug use is widespread and the picture of a

young person challenged to cross moral and ethical boundaries is also com-

mon. The Hell's Alley story speaks of a threshold situation, as the boundary

that this young man crosses is one of the most "sacred" ones: it is the bound-

ary of respecting the life of a mother, a revered icon in the regional culture.

21

Although the story is a contested one that is not shared by everyone in the

barrio, it illustrates the social knowledge and moral repertoire that circulate

through places and names, and the ways these become collective symbolic

texts for the making of social commentaries and conveying moral education.

M oreover, they m ake reference to my thical m aterial and to everyday life expe-

riences, endemic tensions and dilemmas (Warren 1998). The origin of the



16/34

story and its similarities with the one told by the Ibrisimovic poem hint at

their mythical qualities and the ways bodies, subjects and relations have been

worked into different geographical and cultural contexts to exemplify similar

core cultural values at risk, and the fissures in the ethical and social fabric

generated by the impact of continued violence and war.

Changing Names, Changing Dynamics

"El Quinto," the name of another street in Barrio Antioquia, il lustrates

ano ther type of social know ledge in circulation and further illustrates the c om -

municative power of place-naming:

Marfa: "El Quinto" (the fifth) ... because it was like the fifth block of the

Bellavista Prison . From the ho uses on the street the y sold all sorts of

drugs.

One passed by there and everybody was like this [she crouches down on

her haunches]. In the prisons the inmates are like that, offering mari-

juana, everybody smoking...

22

Previous to "El Q u in to ," th e street was called "El Callejon del Oe ste" (the

Alley of the Wild West) for its resemblance to the "American West" that Bar-

rio Antioquia's inhabitants have seen on TV: ongoing shootouts, marks of

gunfire on doors, fights, male bullies, and all kinds of illegal transactions.

Both names capture a mood that is sensed in this place, a dynamic and a

movement that takes place in this block at a particular time. They both have

rich descriptive qualities that focus on the social dynamics rather than on the

geographical features. Th e nam es w ork, in this case, as visual and com parative

metaphors between the actions taking place in the streets and the images they

evoke from TV or from prison.

The changing name of one of the sectors in the barrio, El Chispero, sug-

gests a similar kin d of historicity in place transform ation and social dyn am ics.

M artha explains the nam e changes, beginning with the na m e of "M arquetalia."

Martha: Marquetal ia Street . . . was behind the Health Centre by the new

street that opened afterwards. I've heard that they called it "Marquetalia"

because some man who was very nasty lived there for a long time, and

after he died they started to call the street that (Marquetalio was his last

name). After that Los Chunes [a gang] came and started to hang around

the corner, about seven years ago. I guess they were called Los Chunes

because one of them was named Chun. Anyways, they all hung around

the corner and gathered together to smoke marijuana and so the place

was called "El Chispero." First because they killed and later because they

lit so manychispas [sparks produced by smoking crack and marijuana].

23

Places change names, as the barrio, the social situation and the individu-

als change. In the two cases cited, the change of the name reflects the change



17/34

of activities, social actors and social dynamics taking place. The "Callej6n del

Oeste" was the name used when this street was at the centre of the conflict

because it was the territory of the gangs ofapartamenteros(apartmen t bur-

glars). When the activity of drug dealing transformed the dynamics of the

street, it was renam ed as "El Qu in to ." N am e changing, furthermore, is part of

the h istory o f barrio An tioq uia and illustrates the stories, interests and powers

that are capture d and contested in a nam e. A co m m un ity leader speaks of the

various names of the barrio:

Pablo: The first name for the barrio was

Fundadores

(the Founders),

because that was what people from here called it. Not just a name out of

nowhere, but because the same people who lived here had founded it.

Afterwards they called it "Barrio Antioquia" because people had come

here from all over the state. T he barrio was also kno w n as "Korea." W he n

they established a tolerance zone here it became known as Korea because

of the prostitutes, the violence. Then came the name of "Trinidad" with

the foundation of Santisima Trinidad church, about 50 years ago. Father

Mario Morales urged us to call the barrio with that name because the

nam es of An tioquia or F ounders were stained an d h e wanted to give things

a new face; it was his idea.

24

The narrative establishes a distinction between the practice of naming

and tha t of referring. T he na m e given is reserved for the place where there is a

sense of belongingin this case to "Barrio Antioquia"or the name that is

officially assigned, "Barrio Trinidad." The other names given are modes of

reference that describe what is happening during a particular period; for ex-

ample, "Fundadores" names the origins of the barrio, and "Korea" describes

when the barrio became a red light district during the 1950s, the years that

Colombia sent troops to fight in the Korean war. The history of the name

changes in Barrio Antioquia exemplifies how social stigma and exclusion are

shaped by policy and religious interventions, and also how a community's

practices of naming resist and re-create this.

Barrio An tioq uia is territorially divided by its people in to sectors: La Cueva,

El C uad rade ro, La 68 , El Ch ispero, El Co co, La 65 y La 25, Los Ranchos. By

na m ing places city dwellers locate themselves in distinctive topo graph ic refer-

ents and differentiate between sectors, dynamics, social networks and rela-

tions in the barrio. In barrios like Barrio Antioquia, solidarity and friendship

networks are primarily attached to the sector one lives in. Naming the sector

one lives in is a way of identifying "where I come from." The sector becomes

the source for a feeling of rootedness and for networks of friendship, solidar-

ity and help. In the climate of violence and social conflict that has permeated

these barrios, this is also the main means for differentiation. Inside Barrio



18/34


19/34

There is a subsidiary set of naming typologies that describes the mood of

places and territories, one th at is m ostly built arou nd images of fire and m eta-

pho rs of de ath . Verbs related to d eath are used to describe the transformations

that territories may have suffered as a result of the changes in conflict dynam-

ics or in the feelings that individuals attach to these places. The references are

made, for example, to a conflict "that is dead," and to geographical sectors

"that are dead ." W hile m aking a men tal m ap of the barrio, M ilton, the leader

of the youth gang ofEl Cuadradero in Barrio Antioquia, described the sector

of La Cueva as a sector that "is now dead." He explained that the conflict in

this sector was no longer active, and that as a result he considered this sector

"dead." A "dead sector" also implies that there is not an active gang group or

heightened feelings against this territory. "Death" is used as descriptive of

absence, loss, or lack of fighting.

Images of heat and verbs associated with fire function as symbolic and

sensorial descriptors of evil and violence: the individuals, groups and territo-

ries se

calientan

(literally, "heat up"). Individuals and territories become dan-

gerous, and sectors or barrios become territories of fighting and violence.

Calentarse has become a local idiom to describe the sensorial transition and

excitement felt by the individual who becomes fully immersed in violent ac-

tivities, and it is also used in its traditiona l po pu lar m ean ing as a descriptor of

sexual arousal. This local idiom of "calentarse" inscribes an active agency to

the individual, but also attaches this active agency to the place or territory.

The places that are calientes are characterized by a territorial mood that be-

haves like fire, the un de rsta nd ing of wh ich requires a kind of sensuous reason-

ing in which sensation and desire are deeply intertwined in giving individuals

a know ledge of place.

25

The sensing of a place-mood is articulated in embod-

ied experiences of heightened awareness. For the ordinary city dweller, this

knowledge of places according to mood and "temperature" functions as a cir-

culation marker of the paths and detours to take.

For individua ls th e sensorial transition of calentarse conjures u p the force

deva stating an d abrasive of fire and hea t, bu t also situates desire as a funda-

mental aspect of the mood that places and individuals acquire. Calentarse is

an act linked to pleasure and desire. The decisions and subsequent actions of

som eon e w ho is "caliente" m ix sexual desire w ith ex citemen t and an awareness

that develops when an individual is actively participating in violent actions.

In a local context in which the use of weapons and the control of territories

are highly recognized, to be a

calentdn

is a sought after status for men and

women. According to the following dialogue among members of the gang of

El Cuadradero, this condition of calent6n opens for them opportunities of

social and sexual recognition,



20/34

Milton:

W h a t really kills the b arrio is tha t everybody w ants to

have fame

["Yeah Yeah " say several of them].

Wilfredo: The

peladas

(girls) are that way, I mean the meaner the guy is

the more they like him

M: .. . And women in the barrio . . . because the best known ones get "to

eat" up the toughest guys ... in a barrio a guy doesn't need to chase after

girls,

they themselves say to you " P ss t. . . looking good ," yeah, and one as

a calent6n gets them even easier.

26

The individuals, then, by becoming calientes, have access to "fame." We

hear from Milton that fame is what people in the barrio "die for." Attached to

it are territorial power and social and sexual recognition. This connection

between calentarse and fame is, as the members of the gang of El Cuadradero

are keenly aware of, a driving force in the youths' involvement in violent ac-

tions.

In this view, violence becomes a sensorial and communicative experi-

ence that dwells in bodies and territories, induces pleasure and is enacted

through territorial practices and through bodily and territorial desires.

The apprehension of the mood of places is informed by a direct local

knowledge of the felt quality of places. It is also a practice that allows city

dwellers to grasp th e city env iron m en t a nd the social relationships taking place.

Typologies of place -m ood reveal types of interac tions, app ropr iations and uses

of specific territories and places by city dwellers. They constitute an useful

tool for urba n dwellers to m ake decisions ab ou t risks and ways of walking an d

travelling, while they work as a kind of thermometer that assists residents in

their trajectories in and through the city.

H o m e F ar A w a y F r o m H o m e

Th ro ug ho ut the years, the nu m be r of travellers from Barrio An tioquia to

the United States as part of the networks of drug trafficking has remained

high, with some of them staying away for long periods of time and others

going back and forth.

27

In the Am erican "N or th," B arrio Antioquia's inhab it-

ants have tried to "re-construct" a sense of place, by re-creating the barrio's

am bience an d relations and by place-naming. A sector of Que ens in New York

iscalled "Barrio Antioq uia of the U .S.A." because, as D on R am 6n

says,

"Queens

is where you can always me et som eone from the barrio." Do n Ra m on, a long-

time resident of Barrio Antioquia, describes to Santiago, my research assistant

and a barrio youth leader, how naming evolved in the U.S.:

Ram6n: I 'm from '77, the first year that I went..., but the large majority

went to work at whatever they could find: washing dishes, running er-



21/34

rands,

in the factories, whatever... Yeah, there would've been one or two

who had some bad habits, l ike the

carteristas

(purse-snatchers). But they

realized one thing, and that is that

gringos

don 't really carry m one y in

their purses, only credit cards, and back then we didn't realize what a

credit card was. So they would steal the purse and throw away the cards

[...] After tha t cam e the height of the ... the pow der [cocaine], and then

yeah peo ple really began to travel. I've been told, by som ebody from

there in the United States, about the cocaine business, about the business

going o n in th e cafes. [Yes?] T he y exa m ined the "goods" and coun ted the

money, right there at the tables [of bars like] Las Acacias, La Fonda, Gran

C olo m bia no ... eh, w ha t was it called? La H erra du ra, Anoranzas ... I don't

know if Anoranzas was there at that time, but at that place everybody

ended speaking of the business, all those people.

Santiago: W he re exactly were these places you speak to m e of?

R: In Queens, exactly on RusbelAvenue [Roosevelt Av enue], all this was

more or less on Rusbel Avenue, and at certain times, this was called ... for

example, a place called La Fonda, but everybody called "El Baliska" [name

of the m ost pop ular ba r in the barrio in M ede llin]. Imagine It was the

m ee ting place for all the people from Barrio An tioqu ia , to mee t, to chat,

to do business ... and they ate there too, because it was a Colombian

restaurant... they've told me that the restaurant, not the whole business,

bu t th e restaura nt, was D on a Alicia's, the wife of that m an from the M ejias,

th e one th ey call "M ajapo ," [;el Majapo ] exactly H is wife was the owner

of the restaurant. They used to servepaisaplatter s [a regional dish, a tray

with beans, rice, fried plantains, pork rind, eggs,arepas and cole slaw] ...

so everybody got toge ther to enjoy t he goo d food, an d as a place to meet,

right? But then the police began to come down hard on those places, and

that scared people.

28

The links of this community with the distribution of drugs have re-cre-

ated local social and place referents in United States through the practice of

renaming locations and sites of meeting in the U.S. with the names of places

located in the barrio; however, place referents that relate to the larger city of

Medellin are practically non-existent among Barrio Antioquia inhabitants.

The non-existence of these city referents is mostly explained by the stigmati-

zation and exclusion from the rest of the city that Barrio Antioquia's people

have experienced since the 1950s, when the barrio was declared Medellin's

red light district. In contrast, residents of the barrio recognize several place

referents that are located in the United States. But as the previous narrative

suggests, the pra ctice of plac e-na m ing a nd reco nstruc ting place is one of imag-



22/34

ining and rc-constructing "hom e" far away from hom e. The feelings of long-

ing experienced in a foreign land where barrio residents live in an ongoing

situation of risk are placed in the

bars,

restaurants and streets. Here they meet

to remember "home," to learn about what is going on at home, to listen to

music from "home," and to eat.

The prevalence of place-naming among the residents of Barrio

Antioquia can be seen as a way of maintaining a sense of place. This is

nurtured by the historicity of the events evoked by the name, by the bio-

graphical and mnemonic texture that is attached both to the place and its

name, by the moral lessons that may be drawn from stories that tell about

places, and on occasion by the accuracy of their topographic and physical

descriptions. Place-names in this urban context are imbued with creative

ways of naming that evoke past stories, foundational myths, emotions, moral

lessons, or powerful descriptions of physical and social features of the place.

Place-names provide city residents with mental images and a local social

knowledge that guide their practices of walking, circulating and interact-

ing, and become cultural resources that direct them in their daily life.

Imagining

The link between imagination and place is no trivial matter. The existential

question "where do I belong?" is addressed to the imagination.

Eugene Walter,Placeways

During my

fieldwork,

I was struck by the passion with which many com -

munity workers and young people envisioned and engaged in projects toward

the transformation of their surroundings into meaningful places of their imagi-

nation. I met with this kind of envisioning in the

Zona Nor

Oriental(North-

eastern Z one). Hernan, the director of a local non-governmental organization

and a resident of the zone, took me to an area underneath a high traffic bridge

that gives access to the barrio Villa del Socorro and several others. Years ago,

Manuel, a community leader, conceived the idea of building an open-air the-

atre under the bridge. With the assistance of a local architect, the project was

made, but Manuel never saw it com pleted, as he was killed before the theatre

was finished. Today, a commemorative plaque in the central column of the

bridge pays homage to the leader and explains the "baptism" of the theatre

with his name. The unique design of the theatre blends with every feature of

the landscape. The concrete stairs are the sitting spaces ofthetheatre and are

laid out in a circular motion that follows from the bottom of the hill to the

top street-level area the many slopes of the craggy land. On each side of the

rows of

stairs,

H ernan explains, are houses that have been beautified thanks to

the efforts of residents following the completion of the theatre. The stage is

Remem bering Place: Mem ory and Violence 297


23/34

found on the flattest and lowestarea.Columns on the north side of the bridge

are used for film projection and for storing film machines. The columns on

the south side constitute the background of the stage. On one of them, Nemo,

a French urban landscape artist, painted one of his urban wandering men. In

between the columns on the south side, a comm unity room wasbuilt. The red

brickwallsof the community room and the stage

floor

contrast with the green

and grassy area, the yellow stones, and the gray colour of the approximately

one hundred rows of stairs.

Hernan speaks vividly about the project. He describes the past land-

scape of a smelly garbage disposal area, a feared "hole," a very muddy and

slippery ravine that was causing major erosion in the steep and deforested

foothills while the houses in the surrounding area were sliding. He talks

about the efforts and intense work involved in educating the community on

the value and future of such a project. His attachment to this place is both

sentimental and symbolic, and is one that is shared by many others. Today

the landscape is fused with the human and mnemonic energy that is the

place of the bridge as a centre of cultural and social activity. This act of

place-making involves, in a dialectical relation, acts of remembering and

imagining. The quality of the place is experienced here through memory

and imagination (Walter 1988). In imagining this place, Manuel, Hernan,

and others projected their view of community beyond themselves, to the

realm of their imagination about what might be a community. Today, the

commemorative plaque takes Hernan back to what did happen and to the

memory of Manuel's death. The bridge, meanwhile, continues to provide a

material and symbolic rooting of his work and his imaginings of the realm

of possibilities for his community work. The close ties and dynamic rela-

tionship between place, memory, and imagining speak of the relationship

among past, present and future that is embedded in the acts of remember-

ing and forgetting.

Communi t i es of Memory in Place

My concern with the cultural dimensions of violence has shaped my

ethnographic focus on the lived experience of Medellm's city dwellers.

This focus is not on one form of violencepolitical, domestic or drug-

relatedbut on the ways that multiple forms of violence impact the daily

lives of city dwellers and their plural and transcendent responses: resis-

tance, resilience,grief, pain, humor, and irony (Kleinman and Kleinman

1997). This approach to violence links up with a growing body of anthro-

pological work known as "ethnographies of violence." This body of work

examines questions about the formative, performative and phenomenologi-

cal dimensions of violence, and poses fundamental questions about human

nature and the meaning of humanity in the face of a worldwide spread of

violent conflicts and systemic terror (Robben and N ordstrom 1995; Jenkins



24/34

1998). Taking distance from essentialist and singular understandings of

violence that neglect to see how violence enters into the most fundam ental

features

of people's lives, this article has documented the ways that memory

and a sense of place shape the lived experience of violence in the daily life

of Medellfns inhabitants (Robben and Nordstrom 1995). It examined the

de-territorialization and re-territorialization effects of violence in the so-

cial and physical landscape of Medellin and how city dwellers, through

memory and place-making, re-signify territories and re-configure their cul-

tural identities. This analysis intends to make a contribution to a wider

discussion within anthropology and other disciplines, on questions of hu-

man agency and the interplay of culture and memory in violent conflicts

(Margold 1999).

In the city of Medellin, the associations among people, memories and

places are troublesome. Memories that tie people together and instruct them

about who they are inhabit a place, as does a sense of destruction and pain.

Memories of terror are imprinted in places, and feelings of fear have radi-

cally transformed the relationships of people and places. The investment

of places with significanceeven in physical sites where all social ties or

physical referents have been removedis mainly facilitated by the capac-

ity of memory to transgress physical boundaries. Memory acts as a "bridg-

ing practice" that maintains a local implicit knowledge. Such knowledge

informs city dwellers on safe circulation routes and the ways of operating

while walking or travelling. It further informs the city dwellers on circula-

tion tactics that combine resourcefulness, sagacity, know-how, a sense of

opportunity and a deep sense of the mood and energies of territories. I

argue that when the social fabric of daily life is seriously affected by the

dynamics of violence, it is in remembering and forgetting that Medellin's

city dwellers are finding common referents and an awareness of the things

and beings they have lost to violence. Within communities that are divided

by war, for whom the opportunities to communicate and interact are threat-

ened, this shared way of sensing places through memory is an expression

of and metaphor for establishing a sense of continuity and identity.

Th rough place, the city dwellers of Medellin share memories that weave

together a sense of belonging to a temporal community. This is constructed

through remembering and forgetting practices and through the attachment

to the stories and emotions that places hold. These communities of memory

are temporarily constructed when neighbours meet and share stories, and

may become attached to more lasting social bonds like the youth group or

the family. To be rooted, in this context, challenges restricted spatial and so-

cial boundaries and fixed referents of identity or community to involve what

Liisa Malkki (1995) refers to as a "chronical" mobility and routine displace-

ment of peoples that requires them to "invent homes and homelands" through



25/34

memory The imaginative uses of memory, its circulation through interstices,

and the vitality of an implicit local knowledge enable city dwellers to re-create

co m m un ities of me m ory an d a sense of place. Th ese processes, however, are at

risk of beco m ing e m ptied of mean ing by the dynam ics of violence and by the

power th at violence has as a form of com m un icatio n to suppress and frag-

men t .

Notes

Acknowledgments.

This work is developed from my doctoral dissertation

Dwellers

of Mem ory: An

Ethnography

of Place, Mem ory and

Violence

in Mede llin,

Colombia,

University of British Columbia, 2000. Fieldwork was supported

by Corporacion Region in Medellfn and grants received from the Social Sci-

ences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the International De-

velopm ent Research Ce ntre (I D R C ). M y thanks to An ne Mackleam, Clemencia

Rodriguez, Sebastian Gil-Riafio, Eva Veres, the participants at the panel

"Memory, Representations and Narratives: Rethinking Violence in Colom-

bia" (Latin American Studies Association, M iam i, 200 0), and the anonym ous

reviewers of JLAA for their valuable comments and suggestions.

1. The roots of violence in Medellin, as in Colombia, are connected with

a longer history of social conflict, struggles over land and resources, partisan

political divisions a nd civil wars such asLaGuerrade losMilDias (The War of

a Th ous and Days) between 189 9-190 3, andLa

Violencia

between 1946-1965 .

Contemporary violence in Colombia encompasses a variety of forms of

vio-

lence, armed actors and a wide scope of human rights abuses.

2.

The armed conflict between the guerrilla groups, government troops

and para m ilitary groups goes back to the early 1960s wh en the FAR C (Fuerzas

Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of

C olom bia) em erged as a peasant guerrilla th at rebelled against the Liberal and

Conservative ruling classes.

3. In applying memory as a methodological tool for my fieldwork, I used

group and interactive research methods such as memory workshops and eth-

nographic techniques such as walkabouts. During the memory workshops,

visual and verbal arts methods were developed as data-collecting strategies.

These methods enabled an exploration of the multiple sensorial and mean-

ingful dim ension s tha t are emb edde d in the rem em bering acts. Participants in

the workshop engaged in various activities such as constructing memory im-

ages,

listening to songs, telling stories, evoking smells, describing landscapes,

acknowledging the remembering body, and re-constructing mental maps. The

workshop, as a group and interactive methodology, was a key component of

this m ethodologica l a pproa ch. For a discussion of the workshops as an ethn o-

graphic research method, see Riano 1999.

4. This workshop took place on April 1997, with the participation of 27

youth workers. These workers are involved with governmental and non-gov-

ernmental organizations and grassroots organizations across the city that de-



26/34

velop programs such as for youth leadership and organizing, conflict resolu-

tion and peace processes, recreational, educational and cultural development

programs.

5.

The field material quoted in this article comes from fieldwork notes

and taped material. The taped material was translated from Spanish to En-

glish by Dean Brown and the author of this article.

6. La Avenida de la Playa ... Hay, una e*poca que yo recuerdo, que me ha

marcado, que ha marcado esta ciudad, y es, entre el '87 y el '89, en esta

ciuda d hab ia po r lo me no s diez talleres de poesfa, y yo m e acue rdo q ue , en

una semana, hicimos el lanzamiento de siete revistas de poesia, y era

precisamente la epoca en que estaban M A TA N D O

duro,

du ro en M edellin;

habia tambie'n muchos recitales al punto que nosotros nos reuniamos y

les programamos los recitales para no coincidir. Entonces uno salfa del

recital de la [Universidad] Nacional, y entraba al otro dia que iba pa'l de la

[Universidad] An tioqu ia, despu es se iba pa'l de la [Universidad] M ede llin.

Y hub o un m om ento , del famoso toque de queda, el m om en to

mds,

mas

duro, el dfa que Juan Gomez [el alcalde] paro el toque de queda... a ese

recital nadie falto. La Avenida d e la Playa era llena, eso fue tenaz [increible],

y nosotros rodamos poemas, nosotros rodamos t ragedia , y , ese d ia

queriamos saludar [se le quiebra la voz] a un amigo, un poeta de los mas

jovenes, lo mataron junto a otro pelado, alii en la Oriental [una de las

avenidas principales del centro de Medellin], estaban fumando bareta, y

despues [llorando] ... institucionalizaron la Poesia en Medellin y todo

quedo en un hijueputa festival de poesia... [silencio]

7. Barrio Antioquia's origins date back to the 1910s when immigrants

from the countryside, artisans and working-class families settled in the barrio.

In the 1950s, the barrio lived the effects of La Violencia, a civil war between

the liberal and conservative parties that claimed the lives of thousands of Co-

lombians. In 1951, Barrio Antioquia was declared the red light district of

Medellfn. Daily life changed dramatically for its residents. The decree lasted

two years and left a legacy of social stigma and violence. Since the late sixties,

the drug economy has had a great impact in the barrio. Barrio Antioquia is

the main supplier of drugs for the residents of Medellin and many of its resi-

dents have "visited" the United States as "mules," individual carriers of

drugs.

Many others have been involved as intermediaries in the business or through

youth gangs that provide services to the drug cartels. The cultural and social

life of the barrio is rich and very dynamic. Inhabitants of Barrio Antioquia

feel a strong sense of belonging to the barrio.

8. Youth in Barrio Antioquia refer to "the war" as the period in the early

nineties w he n the b arrio was territorially divided in six sectors. T h e "w ar" was

between the gangs that controlled each of the six sectors.



27/34

9. Quiero representar la noche. El dfa en que mataron a mi mcjor amigo

que se llamaba Ca m ilo. A ver, ese dfa yo m e encon traba d urm iend o en m i

casa, o sea, ye*l sabfa que por ahf no se podfa meter porque sabfa que lo

mataban, pero no se\ cuando uno se va a morir la muerte lo busca. fil ese

dfae*lse me ti6 p or ahf y cu and o Ileg6 a la esquina lo estaban espcrando, lo

m ataro n, los m ucha chos se metieron hasta alii y lo sacaron po r todo e sto.. .

hasta la 2 5 , y llegaron a esta esquina, que es la esquina d on de yo vivo, no

se , y en ese momento mi hermanita entro la chiquitica y me despert6 y

m e dijo: "Jennifer, Jennifer m ata ron a Cam ilo ." C ua nd o yo llegue* lo tenfan

ya en la mitad de la cuadra, entonces yo pues yo ya no podia hacer nada,

yo sail y me fui con ellos para el hospital pero ya el iba muerto; ese dfa

m ataron a otro tam bien. E ntonces yo con mi dibujo quiero como expresar

la tristeza qu e a mi m e dio cua ndo m e di cuenta que habfan m atado a mi

am igo. [Memory workshop with12youth from Barrio Antioquia, May 1997]

10. Antioquia is the department of Colombia that produces the larger

nu m ber s of forced displaceme nt, 45 perc ent (C om ision Co lom biana de Juristas,

1997). In 1998,8,000 displaced families arrived in Medellfn. These families

were largely ignored by the municipal, departamental and national authori-

ties and established large new squatter settlements in areas of high risk for

landslides. The proportion of this massive displacement towards the cities

m irrors th e m assive migra tion towards the cities in the pe riod of the civil war

known as "La Violencia" (1950s-60s) that radically transformed Colombian

cities.

11.

Aca yo rep rese nto el tiem po ^sf? com o q ue el tiem po era de la violencia,

pues esto aca era como la quebradita, el sector de La Cueva. Si, entonces

esto era pura manga, el no, la quebrada, bueno. Entonces yo represente

ahf po rqu e yo con u n com pafiero, en cierta opor tun ida d varios compafieros

y yo estabamos ahf, todos en su discurso, en sus comentarios y uno de

ellos dio el comentario: "El dfa que yo me muera me ponen este disco,

que con este disco significa todo." [Memory workshop with 12 youth

from Barrio Antioquia, May 1997]

12.

Raphie Leavitt y su orquesta. Oro Salsero,1994.

13.In a historical analysis of yo uth cultural expressions in the Co lom bian

city, I argue d tha t th e relations established with m usic an d with the city space

have shaped y ou th c ultural expressions. M usic, in its different rhy thm ic man i-

festations, is a me diating eleme nt within the u rban experience, providing youth

a meaningful field in which to ground different styles that ultimately become

the building blocks of youth identities, generate differences of style that per-

m it identification (Riano 199 1). T he re is a long repe rtoire of salsa songs that

acco m pany and provide "guidance" for Medellfn

s

youth. In the mem ory work-

shops, youth talked about their barrio's or their groups hymns and symbols.



28/34

Most of these songs sing to the crude realities of poverty, death, drugs and

violence b ut also expose som e of the basic values an d logic of loyalties tha t this

generation has accepted.

14. Sandra: Ah no .. mire esa miisica me gustaba mucho y la bailaban en

el barrio Antio quia , la cantaba N atus ha , [,;En que* afios rue? pregunta otra

persona] fue en el mes de diciembre del afio 1989.

Se bailaba en filita, todo el mundo salfa como en trencito todo el mundo

salfa [varias hab lan do grita nd o ex plican do]... una falda alta, ombligue ra y

una balaca, [Es que la Natusha era

tremenda

jpues ] [jhasta la ropa ] todo

el m un do en trencito bailando. En ese entonces el que escuchara a N atusha

era tremendo, hasta salio la moda de la ropa de ella, se hacfan concursos

de el que mejor bailara y la imitara.

O m ar :.. . Si, que por esa epoca, con esa miisica en un a discoteca los hicieron

desnudar y bailar desnudos y si no lo hacian los mataban.

Pilar: ,;Quienes eran ellos?

O: Un combo, en ese tiempo eran los Chinos que vivian en El Chispero.

15. Medellfn is divided in six urban zones and 16 communes. A zone

includes an area of several barrios from various social and economic levels and

is divided in communes that share social and economic characteristics. The

Northeastern Zone is located west of the city's downtown. The settlement

process of this zone took place predominantly during the 1970s and 1980s

through illegal urbanization and

invasiones

(squatters) and some by commer-

cial urbanization. Geographically, the distinctive element of the Northeastern

Zone is its location at the foothills of the surrounding city's mountains and its

steep topography (Secretaria de Bienestar Social 1996; Naranjo 1992).

16. The mandate of the first Presidential Office of Medellfn was to de-

velop alternatives to the critical social emergency that the city was facing. In

1990,

youth houses began providing attention to youth at risk and involved

with violent lifestyles and were established in some of the barrios that were

identified as most affected by violence. The house was either rented or bought

and was assigned to a you th gro up that became responsible for ru nn ing th e house,

and for organizing recreational and educational activities. Go vernm ental a nd no n-

governmental organizations supported these youth in planning their activities as

well as in their educa tional prog ram m ing. See M arque z an d O spin a 1999.

17.Este es el horiz onte , aqui hay un sol chiquitico qu e esti am anec iendo ,

una calle que baja, este soy yo y este un amigo mio; esta es una tienda,

aquf como en la parte de atris de la t ienda, aquf est in dona Rubiela y

una hermana de ella lavando una mancha de sangre que habfa en esta

Remem bering Place: M emory and Violence 303


29/34


30/34

would give them up to three notices requesting that they quit their drug con-

sumption or their attacks on the barrio's people. If they did not follow their

orders, they were killed. Initially these actions were mostly welcomed by the

pobladores as they allowed them to enter, exit and move in the barrio without

the fear of being robbed or attacked. With time, however, many began to

question their form of social cleansing and vertical exercise of power and the

denial of opportunities for drug users.

20.U na cosa mu y bo nita de "C orazones Abiertos" [n om bre de la casa] es

haber ingresado al proceso y haber vinculado a muchos pelados, porque

los pelados se mantenian por ahf fumando vicio y los acechaban mucho

los m ilicianos, [y nosotros les deciam os] "que si se hac en ahi les va a pasar

algo" "que si no cambian ..." en fin, hoy muchos no estan para contar la

historia, eso fue muy duro en esa epoca. [Memory workshop with eight

members and ex-members of three youth houses, October 1997]

21 .

Traditionally, in the regional culture (referred as "antioquefio"), the

mother has played a key role as the center of the domestic world and the

extended family. With the economic and social crisis of the region during the

seventies and eighties, this role was accentuated by the increase number of

women headed households and single motherhood (Salazar and Jaramillo

1994).

Salazar (1990) has documented youth gangs' re-creation of certain

regional cultural elem ents such as C atho lic religious practices and the spirit of

retaliation which have provided gang members with a kind of ethical back-

drop to their violent actions. Thus, Catholic symbols and beliefs are inte-

grated into the gang culture. Of especial significance is the devotion to the

Virgin Mary. In fact, according to Salazar, "God has been overthrown. The

virgin gave him a cou p d'e tat" (Salazar 199 0:19 7). T h e virgin is a closer, femi-

nine, loyal, and m ore permissive figure to w ho m gang me m bers pray and ask

for good luck because she is a mother.

22 .

"El Quinto" . . . porque ha sido como el quinto patio de la carcel

Bellavista. Era una calle de casas donde vendian puro vicio [drogas].

Uno pasaba por alia y todos eran asi [se pone en posicion de cuclillas]

En las carceles los presos son asi, ofreciendo marihuana, todo el mundo

fumando asi . . . [Memory workshop with women of Barrio Antioquia,

June 1997]

2 3 . La Calle M arqu etalia ... eso fue detras del C en tro de Salud po r la calle

nueva que abrieron despues. He oido decir que le decian "Marquetalia"

porque alii vivi6 mucho tiempo un sefior que era muy malo y le decfan

Marquetalio, el se murio y asi colocaron la calle. Despues llegaron Los

C hu ne s [no m bre de la banda ] hace c om o siete afios o tal vez md s, ellos se

hacfan en la esquina . A u no de ellos le decfan C h u n y po r eso los colocaron

asf. En todo caso ellos se hacfan en esa esquina y hacfan una choza para

meterse a fumar marihuana y por eso la pusieron "El Chispero." Primero



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era porque mataban y despu& porque enccndfan muchas "chispas" [al

fumar bazuco y marihuana] [Mem ory workshop with wom en of Barrio

Antioquia, June 1997]

24 . El primer nombre [del barrio] fue "Fundadores" porque toda la gente

que habfa en este terreno se referfan como la parte de Fundadores, no fue

qu e d ijeran qu e asf se llamarfa sino que la gente lo llamaba asf po rqu e allf

vivfan sus propios fundadores. Despue*s lo llamaron "Barrio Antioquia"

po rque venia gente de todas partes del departam ento. El barrio tuvo otro

no m bre era "C orea

Documents

Remembering Place: Memory and Violence in Medellin, Colombia