Al cuerpo lo pueden acabar, pero el espíritu de la lucha continúa : una mirada a la memoria y la cultura del pueblo indígena nasa desde el Encuentro Sociocultural Álvaro Ulcué Chocué

Abstract

This paper is a case study focused on the commemoration of the assassination of Nasa indigenous leader Alvaro Ulcué Chocué that has been done annually for the past thirty-three years in the municipality of Toribío, Cauca. The anniversary today is called Encuentro Sociocultural Álvaro Ulcué Chocué. The main purpose of this paper is to glimpse the role played by memory and culture within the current Encuentro Sociocultural Álvaro Ulcué Chocué. Father Alvaro Ulcué Chocué is one of the most important leaders for the indigenous people of northern Cauca figures, not only to embody being Catholic and indigenous--at apparently contradictory roles but also for being the pioneer of municipal life plans in the region while he was parish priest of the municipality of Toribío. The various ways as the father Alvaro is remembered converge within this Encuentro Sociocultural and make it a symbolic confrontation space, where culture plays an important role. That is why the proposal of this work is to present an analytical view of the intersection of politics and culture from a scaled approach, where by a cultural event can be observed several notions of culture and politics interact. Second, addressing local realities from the Encuentro Sociocultural allowed this serve as a tool to warn not only the internal transformations of the same, but external, that is it possible to see the impact that this has generated in the municipal context. Finally, the approach to the field of study from the event, allowed to inquire about how the political project of the indigenous movement is appropriate for local subjectivities in their daily lives. I believe that this proposed approach to a reality as documented in the social sciences, ends up being the main contribution of this work. In methodological terms this work is qualitative in which an ethnographic approach was used.