Dwellers of Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín, Colombia (review)

Many books and articles have been published recently on the topic of memory and oral history and how older individuals construct their memories. In dealing with the topics of memory and narrative, Pilar Riaño-Alcalá's book Dwellers of Memory is not necessarily unique. However, what makes this book fascinating and effective is the author's powerful ethnographic portrayal of youth in Colombia and their use of narrative both to remember and to forget their traumatic experiences while living in the heart of widespread violence between the mid-1980s and -2000. Riaño-Alcalá explores "multiple dimensions" of violence in an effort to understand the "complex human paradoxes and dilemmas involved in the politics of memory, both in those societies in the midst of war and those involved in processes of peace, justice and reconciliation" (xxix).

In her introduction, Riaño-Alcalá presents the assumptions that guided her work in exploring how the youth of Medellín represented and constructed meaning from their life experiences. She defines her work as an "anthropology of remembering and forgetting, an ethnographic observation of what youth remember and forget, and how they actualize memories in daily life" (17). With memory as her primary focus, she utilized "group and interactive research methods" including what she calls "memory workshops" and "walkabouts" (17). She describes her memory workshops as the gathering together of groups of individuals who interactively "engaged in remembering through the use of verbal and visual art" (17). Riaño Alcalá further articulates her methodology:

The combination of individual story telling with the creation of collective products (e.g., a map, a quilt) and the participants' reflections made ongoing exchange possible in a process that both produced knowledge and generated its meaning. When a group collectively explores its past through the sharing of stories, the practices of memory often cover a continuum between description, sensorial experience, and analytical reflection (17).

Riaño-Alcalá's research explores highly sensitive subjects—trauma, children, and violence—and she knew the potential implications of her research. She states that her personal expertise in the areas of facilitation, conflict resolution, and group dynamics, as well as the presence of local community workers as cofacilitators for her group sessions, prepared her for potentially uncontrolled emotional reactions during the memory workshops.

Chapter 1, "Local Histories in a National Light," situates the violence in various communities in Medellín into the larger historical context of drug-related violence in Colombia. Though I study oral history and memory, my knowledge of Colombian history is rather limited, and therefore, I found this opening chapter to be quite helpful. The author sets up the book well in this initial chapter, articulating a description of the historical landscape surrounding these youth gangs. Chapter 2 begins her ethnographic look at the youth of the city and the ways in which they use narrative memory to create a meaningful understanding of the place which they inhabit and the violence that they experienced. She looks specifically at the cultural construction of place—the place making derived from memory. In this chapter, Riaño-Alcalá vividly describes her walkabouts with various youth discussing their memories of the violence in Medellín and the situation of these memories within physical space. She also begins her discussion of the emergence of communities of memory and the exploration of meaning within these memories.

Chapters 3 and 4 focus on specific narrative patterns that emerged from these memory workshops. Chapter 3 specifically focuses on "Living Memories of Death," how the dead are remembered and how the practice of commemorating the dead forms "temporary communities" (101). Chapter 4, "Ghosts Possessed Bodies and Warriors: Narratives of Fear and Gendered Violence," looks at the local revitalization of folkloric narrative traditions involving ghosts, witches, curses, and satanic figures and the way in which these storytelling traditions assist participants in the negotiation of fear and function to "release tangible social tensions, and deal with the uncertainties...