info:eu-repo/semantics/article
"No olvidemos a los muertos". Animero y violencia en Puerto Berrío, Antioquia (Colombia)
Date
2019-05-01Registration in:
2011-0324
instname: Universidad Icesi
reponame: Biblioteca Digital
Author
Gómez Sepúlveda, Claudia Lorena
Figueroa Salamanca, Helwar Hernando
Institutions
Abstract
This article describes a popular religious practice: the worship of the Souls of Purgatory
and the dead bodies thrown into the Magdalena River in Puerto Berrío, Antioquia. This
practice is a current belief maintained through the figure of the animero, who represents
the identity, devotion, and community memory of the port, enhanced by the corpses that
run aground along the river banks and that are religiously adopted by its inhabitants. In
these rituals, the locals give names to the corpses, they bury them with dignity and pray
for them against the oblivion desired by their perpetrators. Adopting the victims with
unknown identity or John Does in this area, severely affected by the armed conflict, helps
to recreate the memory of the dead and thus strengthens the identity of the corpses in
relation to the figure of the animero. This description was achieved through participant
observation, interviews with the locals, and the life story of the current animero.