Colombia’s Propositions for Memory

Drawing on interviews with members of the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica in Colombia, this chapter explores the methods by which the Center attempted to fulfill the task of creating an “archive of archives” of the violence that has caused decades of suffering. This remit, stipulated by law, and incorporated eventually into the 2016 Law, was vast and destined to be unwieldy. With extraordinary care and intelligence, the team—working under Gonzalo Sánchez, the first director—created a subtle methodology by which to reach out to communities across the country, to listen and help articulate the experiences of the people of Colombia. The chapter reflects on the logic of this work of building a national archive. The Center was also given the further task of developing the architecture and curatorial plans for a national museum of memory in Bogotá. The chapter discusses how the team responded to this proposition.