Sites of Memory in Peru: Agencies and Social Processes

Memory sites have been one of the most widespread commemoration initiatives in post-conflict Peru. There is as much diversity in the initiatives as there are entrepreneurs, but they have not been consolidated through a policy that guides and articulates them. This paper analyzes the social processes behind the creation and functioning of three places of commemoration in a context of battles for memory: the museum “Para que no se repita” of Asociación Nacional de Familiares de Secuestrados, Detenidos y Desaparecidos del Perú; the Yalpana Wasi of the Government of Junín, and the Casa de la Memoria Viva of the Asociación Nuevo Amanecer. By examining these cases, we conclude that in Peru the memory sites have been constituted by effort of the victims or as part of political vehicles, without a state that articulates them and without an integral policy, pushing the entrepreneurs to look for sustainability strategies that generates an uncertain appropriation in the society.