Restoring the political: The places of memory in Argentina, Chile and Colombia

This article analyses the social processes of marking places of memory in Argentina, Chile and Colombia, as well as how the actions developed in and from these places constitute a restitutive function of the political and the community. In the cases of Argentina and Chile, the recuperation of previous places of detention and torture used during the dictatorships and their transformation into places of memory enables a work of memory that goes beyond commemoration and reparation. In the case of Colombia, the proliferation of places of memory has made possible the participation of local actors that use these places to rearticulate communitarian practices that have been destroyed or debilitated during the armed conflict. In different ways, these places of memory impact the public sphere to which they belong, transcending the geographical frontiers of place, and this makes them suitable spaces for political action, bringing together diverse actors.