Official Memories, Silent Memories in Ocros (Ayacucho, Perú). Reflections from a Commemoration of a Sendero Luminoso Massacre

• Autor: Robin Azevedo, Valérie
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2015
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/13089
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/13089
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Peru; War; Sendero Luminoso; Peasant Militia; Performance; Commemoration; Carnival; Victims; Heroes; Nation; Perú; guerra; rondas campesinas; performance; conmemoración; carnaval; víctimas; héroes; nación

The gathering of testimonials by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the aftermath of the armed conflict opposing the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla and the Peruvian state has led to original socio-cultural dynamics around the local histories of the war. This article will focus on a carnival performance carried out in the Andean district of Ocros (Prov. of Huamanga), staging the massacres committed by the Sendero Luminoso and the struggle of the peasant militias. Beyond the commemoration of this episode, what are the issues and the objectives that underlie the performance? What view is given and what is left in silence, unsaid, by the actors in this type of unavoidably fragmentary ‘writing’ of the history of violence? Analyzing both the choreographic and the narrative production concerning the war, we will address the strategic uses they give rise to. Finally, we will focus on the way in which different memories compete and articulate to one another, so as to determine the mechanisms of legitimation and the competitive logics at playin these public projections of recent history.