Memory and Oblivion. Testimonies and Depictions

Abstract

If everything is history, then, in his work, the historian acknowledges both memory and oblivion when creating those depictions that constitute his never-ending commitment, and hence assumes the responsibility of creating and preserving new sources for a new history. Recovering memory and combating oblivion signify a challenge to ceaselessly denounce injustices. One endeavors to write a history that recovers and preserves different versions of the facts, seen from the most diverse viewpoints and in the light of all manner of interests, and this implies carrying out a task that precedes that of deconstruction, so as to subsequently embark on the heroic feat of splitting hairs, while taking into account different opinions and viewpoints that express the events themselves in many ways. In short, the historian is both a witness of -and a protagonist in- his times.