La experiencia traumática y su transformación en memoria narrativa

Los usos de la memoria en la Sierra de Juárez, Oaxaca

Abstract

The indigenous peoples memory plays an important role because it transmits their traditions and particular way of understanding the world. The oral tradition has served as the vehicle for transmitting culture over several centuries, by transferring knowledge and experiences. The town radio station, Bë’ë Xidza (aire zapoteco) is presented as the guaranty of the collective memory which alouds the community to communicate in their own language without forgetting Spanish. However, a traumatic event for a community can interfere with the narrative construction of a testimony, either from the impossibility of narrating a particular experience as a subject or by the establishment of a collective pact of silence that silences the community. The purpose of this article is to share reflections about the experience during an investigation conducted in a context of tension and violence of power groups against a Zapotec community in Sierra de Juarez, Oaxaca.