Testimoniar una guerra ajena, 1958-2022 : prácticas de memoria de excombatientes y descendientes colombianos en la Guerra de Corea (1950-1954)

Abstract

Objective/Context: Based on the categories of practices and social frameworks of memory, this article analyses the testimonies of ex-combatants and descendants of the Batallón Colombia, a contingent of the Colombian Army that participated in the Korean War (1950-1954). It reconstructs the contexts in which these narratives of the past were produced, the public they addressed and their transformations over time. The analysis covers the period between 1958, when the first veterans’ association was founded, and the collection of testimonies in 2021 and 2022. Methodology: To account for the above, we used qualitative techniques, such as memory workshops and interviews with ex-combatants and relatives identified through the associations of veterans and family members or descendants. Originality: The research is based on aspects that are not usually contemplated by historiography, such as testimonial analysis, which shows how ex-combatants and descendants describe their participation in the Korean War, the enunciation places of their stories, the changing historical contexts in which they move and the uses of these ways of naming the past. Conclusions:The analysis allows us to account for the historicity and transformation of how direct and indirect witnesses of this war—whose memories do not play an important role in the public debate—narrate the past and show the role of identity and social demand played by the testimonies in forming social organizations.

Keywords

• batallón colombia
• korean war
• military memories
• memory practices
• testimonies
• veterans