So , how do we tell what has happened to us ?
In the case of Colombia , “ testimonial narratives have been so numerous that one volumes of the Final Report of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth , for Coexistence and Non-Repetition - CEV - ( 2022 ) 1 It was dedicated to these words created by the imagination . This volume , titled Cuando los Pájaros No Cantaban : historias del conflicto armado en Colombia ( When the Birds Didn ’ t Sing : Stories of the Armed Conflict in Colombia ), is also known as the Capítulo Voces del Informe final . ( Voices Chapter of the Final Report ).
By listening to victims , perpetrators , and other involved actors , the Commission identified a narrative structure where the everyday emerged as a prominent aspect of the war . The history of the conflict was made up of “ stories within stories ”, that is , fragments within narratives that recounted life , subjectivities , and intimate experiences of violence . An everyday structure wrapped in time as a triple present : “ a present of future things , a present of past things , and a present of present things ” ( 1996 , p . 124 ). A kind of temporal indeterminacy of memory , as it appeared in a present from which the past was remembered , while simultaneously being a present from which the future was envisaged . In this way , victimising acts were addressed not only from the traditional approach of “ listening as a gesture of the past ,” focused on specific moments of violence , but also incorporated a future perspective , considering the expectations regarding the processes of truth , justice , and reparation to which the Colombian State committed itself , within the framework of the Peace Agreement signed between the National Government and the FARC-EP ( Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People ’ s Army in 2016 .
(…) this volume sought to compose a polyphony of the war through the most intimate experiences of those who lived it . It therefore focused its efforts on delving into the memories of violence using a narrative that connected a past which , in tangible terms , has not been left behind- since violence continues in Colombia - an uncertain present , and a “ future ” imagined from that uncertainty and through efforts to build “ peace on a small scale ” ( 2022 , p . 9 )
Thus , the stories of violence and their images became traces left by past events , an interpretation of experiences in the present , and a sign with
1 The CEV is one of the three entities created by the Peace Agreement between the Colombian State and the FARC-EP , signed in November 2016 . The other two entities are the Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons ( UBPD ) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace ( JEP ). overview
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