Policies of the Memory in Colombia: Initiatives, Tensions and Experiences (2005-2016)

This article provides a look into tensions, initiatives and experiences related to some of the policies of memory, both official and non-official, that have assigned meaning to the past in Colombia in recent years. A deep insight on the origins and identity reconfiguration of Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice against Forgetting and Silence (known in Spanish as H.I.J.O.S.) a collective that has negotiated different initiatives of historical memory reconstruction, one of them referenced in the article, for more than ten years. The policies of hegemonic memory in Colombia have established constant denial and invisibility of the systematic violations to Human Rights against different populations; they have also created tension and confrontation with the historical experience of movements and collectives that, as in the case of H.I.J.O.S., negotiate disruptive memories that oppose forgetting and confront impunity.