Memoria y olvido: usos públicos del pasado en Colombia, 1930-1960

Abstract

This work examines the politics of the past, forgetting, and historical revisionism promoted by commemorations, the teaching of national history, and historical preservation to consolidate and install the patriotic traditions of the national memory. The work of the Colombian Academy of History (Academia Colombiana de Historia–ACH) in 1930-1960 is described as playing a formative role in producing official memory by consolidating a group of academics who focused on history as patriotism, publishing a book series on national history, founding affiliates to support its activities,and emphasizing its own legitimacy in the process. The work then analyzes the imposition of an official version of the national past through patriotic commemorations by providing a narrative history of the Academy and the political trajectory of Colombia in 1930-1960, when elegies to our forebears were a principal lens through which the cultural and historical heritage of the country was remembered. Finally, the educational philosophy of the Academy is examined, in which history education contributes to maintaining tradition, despite the educational and cultural reforms proposed during Liberal governments and presidency of Rojas Pinilla. This text is useful in helping us understand the symbolic system for national memory that can be established by entities like the ACH and implemented through a coordinated set of policies constituting the political use of the past, which in the words of Eric Hobsbawm “may end up being some version of the opium of the people.”