Mapping Colombian Fictions
BY: Karrie Villarreal, Priscilla Otero, and Hillary Wickenhauser
This page illustrates how different Colombian novels create a map of references that encompass national and international networks of memory, pain, and violence.
La Luz Dificil by Tomás González is a novel centered around memory and pain. Set in New York, but expressed years later in Colombia, the main character David reflects on the time his son, Jacobo, chose euthanization. Places in New York 'reflect his anguish during this time.
The characters in this piece of fiction use strategies to cope, whether denial, avoidance, and then finally acceptance, as a way of overcoming the death of Jacobo.
In post-confect resolution, memory from victims and perpetuators act as witness to produce justice and reconciliation. La Luz Dificil, while not directly related to the Colombian conflict, showcases a Colombian family and how one deals with pain. In particular how memory acts as a barrier or an aid to remembering events when linked to emotions.
The map places the locations mentioned in David's recollection of the events leading to his son's death. Each place is given a brief summary on how the location relates to his story. The visualization aids in placing reality in fiction, both as locations and as the common theme of humanity.
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When we think of emotions, we usually associate them with location. Why did it happen and why were we there at that moment in time? Location tends to affect how comfortable we are with expressing those emotions or choosing to feel by oneself. Associating emotion with location shows us how we endure different forms of the same emotion in various locations. The author Evelio Rosero uses memory loss and a widespread introduction of violence to make the linkage between emotion and location in his novel stronger. With these linkages and the perspective of the protagonist, the reader observes how many emotions a character can go through in a small town. In “The Armies” we see the journey of Ismael, a 70 year old retired professor in a small town in Colombia. Throughout the novel he endures many emotions, in which many of them all take form through fear. Most of his emotions take place in a town where he has always felt comfortable enough to do whatever he wants freely, for example being a peeping Tom. Ismael traveled all over his hometown in search of his wife but in each location he struggled to remember. This caused him to feel worse and worse about the situation of armies infiltrating the town and the disappearance and murder of his community. Ismael's emotions traveled to the ends of town and as his emotions heightened and his suffering and pain took over, he started to lose memory as to why he went to those locations. In a way, his old age and subjection to the armed conflict were undoing the way emotions and memories were attached to locations of his town.