Writing by Heart. Victims of the Colombian Armed Conflict Write their Testimonies Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Bungard, Claudia Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 29/09/2021 07:56:00 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/631420 1 WRITING BY HEART. VICTIMS OF THE COLOMBIAN ARMED CONFLICT WRITE THEIR TESTIMONIES by Claudia Bungard ____________________________ Copyright © Claudia Bungard 2018 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2018 2 3 Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking my family: Tucker, Azucena and Otto Bungard, who have been very patient and supportive during the time of this research. Thank you also to Kate Richter, my mother-in-law, for being so caring ever since I first thought about studying in the Master’s program in Latin American Studies. Thank you to all the people in Medellín, Colombia, who shared their memories with me. They were the organizers of the writing workshops: Patricia Nieto, Gabriel Bustamante, Jorge Mario Betancur, Luz Adriana Ruiz Marín, Victor Casas and Lina Martínez, and the victims who wrote their testimonies during these workshops: Maria Teresa Uribe, Fabiola Lalinde, Helly Johana Blandon, the Úsuga Brothers, Cristian Cardona, Iván Darío Arroyave, Jorge Iván López and Laura Guzmán. I want to thank my committee chair and adviser, Dr. Elizabeth Oglesby, for her critical reading and permanent support from the start and during the analytical period and writing process. Thank you to Professor Marcela Vásquez-León for helping me to better understand the Colombian history and for all the emotional and academic support. Thank you to Professor Antonio da Silva for taking the time to read this thesis and being always available to give advice and feedback. I am grateful to all of the institutions who have helped fund this research: University of Antioquia (Colombia), Tinker Foundation, and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. Writing this thesis could not be possible without the help I received from the Writing Skills Improvement Program. Thank you to Andrea Hernandez Holm, PhD, for all the teaching and moral support, and thank you to all my colleagues who supported me in the Women of Color Writing Group. I also thank my colleague María Inés Taracena, who translated the first chapter of this research, originally written in Spanish. Lastly, I want to thank my family in Colombia, my parents and two sisters who have always believed in my dreams and helped me to make them true. Thank you. 4 Dedication A Tuck y a mis hijos Azucena y Otto 5 Table of Contents Abstract / 6 Introduction / 7 Building memory in a fragmented society / 8 Victims in a fragmented country / 10 Methodology / 11 Overview / 12 Chapter 1: Victims in a Fragmented Country / 14 Colombia, a fragmented country / 15 A century of battles for territory / 18 The “happy” years (1900-1929) / 19 The effects of the Great Depression (1930-1948) / 20 La Violencia (1948-1957) / 22 The Bipartisan Pact of the National Front (1958-1974) / 23 The Armed Conflict (1958-2016) / 24 The Guerrillas / 25 The paramilitary groups / 27 The drug-trafficking mafias / 29 The Colombian state and the United States / 31 What war left behind / 33 The armed conflict in Antioquia and Medellín / 35 The negotiated peace and the construction of historical memory/ 36 Chapter 2 Key Discussions on Testimonies / 38 Testimonies in Latin America / 38 Testimonies in Colombia / 41 Key debates on testimonial production / 45 Givers and takers / 46 Trauma recovery / 46 Historical memory / 47 Social justice / 49 New scenarios for testimonial production in Colombia / 51 Chapter 3: A case of testimonial production in Colombia / 54 Research methods / 55 The complexity of victimhood in Colombia / 56 The healing effects of producing testimonies / 63 Narratives for a political transformation / 68 Conclusions / 73 Appendix / 75 Bibliography / 76 6 Abstract The half-century Colombian armed conflict has left an enormous human impact. Statistics say that between 1956 and 2018 more than eight million people have been victims of crimes perpetrated by guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and the national army. For decades, most of the victims have maintained a complete silence about their tragedies. However, in recent years, with the guidance of journalists and social workers, some victims have started to write their own memories of the war. Between 2006 and 2010, as a way to collect testimonies of the conflict in the region of Antioquia, Colombia, the local government of the city of Medellin supported “De su puño y letra”, a series of writing workshops in which victims wrote their own tragedies. In part, this thesis seeks to explore this new way to produce testimonies in Colombia and to show the impact of this grassroots memory project on participants. It also refers to its potential effects and legacy, in order to make recommendations for future such projects in times of transitional justice in Colombia. Key Words: Testimonio, Colombian Armed Conflict, Victims, Writing, Memory, Trauma 7 Introduction The production of testimonies is prominent in times of transitional justice in Colombia. After more than sixty years of armed conflict, thousands of victims, survivors, and witnesses from diverse socio-economic backgrounds have been called to give their oral or written testimonies in regards to a particular situation of violence or injustice. This moment presents an opportunity to explore the politics and uses of testimonial production in Colombia. It is especially important to look at the role that victims have been playing in recent years in the construction of historical memory. In this thesis I investigate an innovative experience of collecting narratives of war in Colombia that took place in the city of Medellín between 2006 and 2010. Starting with a look at the national history and the context in which violence has spread out during the last century, this study seeks to highlight a mechanism that the victims of the armed conflict have found to build and publicize their stories. As a Colombian, the research interest arises from a personal concern about the way in which the war has been narrated in my country, an exercise done mostly by state agencies, media and academics. Starting with the premise that Colombia is a fragmented country–– which imposes challenges to the goal of building a national history and identity–, this study pays attention to the voices of victims. In a context of humanitarian crisis, for decades, thousands of people have kept completely silent. Until recently, testimonial projects were mediated by “experts” from diverse fields, including academics, journalists, and writers. Victims’ voices were collected, edited, and published, but even when these were important avenues to publicize information about the conflict, victims did not really take ownership over how their own stories were told or used. However, as a way to include their voices in 8 the national history, in the last decade, groups of victims have begun to participate in memory projects and some of them have written their own stories. In a broader context, scholars have mostly focused their studies in particular countries such as Argentina, Guatemala or Nicaragua. Several researches (Beverley 1993, Gugelberger 1996, Jelin 1994) stress specific testimonial production issues: defining testimony, its origins, benefits, limitations and/or expectations around matters like trauma relief or social justice. By looking at the Colombian case and doing a follow-up on a particular memory project, I give relevance to grassroots testimonial narratives barely studied. Building memory in a fragmented society One day, Mrs. Elizabeth, 54, was talking on the porch of her house with some relatives and neighbors. Unexpectedly, from the corner of the street, they felt an explosion. She lost her son, forever. On another day, John Ferney, 14, was leaving his ranch with his whole family, escaping from the continuous battles between the guerrillas and the paramilitary groups. Trying to keep safe, he accidentally stepped in a landmine and lost one leg, forever. And one other afternoon, Johana’s little cousin Laurita, 7, was walking with her mom to her grandma’s house in Medellin. It was a beautiful day, until Laurita was suddenly killed by a stray bullet. Johana lost her dear cousin, forever. The human impact of the more than a half-century Colombian armed conflict is enormous. Tragedies like those mentioned above are just three out of more than eight million victims’ stories that happened between 1958 and 2018. The numbers are horrifying. According to the most recent database made by the National Center for Historical Memory, 262,197 Colombians died, more than 7 million were internally displaced, 80,514 disappeared, and 37,094 were kidnapped. During this period, 17% of the population in 9 Colombia has been physically and/or physiologically affected by crimes such as assassinations, massacres, torture, disappearances, forced displacement, dispossession, sexual violence, illicit recruitment, landmines, sabotage, and terrorist attacks, among others. The multiple layers of violence and the diversity of Colombian territories, make it difficult to generalize about the causes and effects of an armed conflict that is, at the same time, a combination of conflicts. Some scholars argue that, from a social and geographical perspective, Colombia is a fragmented country (Safford and Palacios 2002). The elites that have been in power over the last two centuries have owned communication channels such as newspapers, editorial publishers, and mass media, and have imposed an idea of national identity that excludes alternative voices (López 2012, Ortiz 1998).