Between wounds and footprints the pain grows: memory in processes of pain and disease in Ayacucho

Abstract

Ayacucho, after looking closely into the eyes of death, left wounds and marks, and triggered physicalemotional symptoms. This article deals with the links between memory and illness in the mothers of ANFASEP. The author explores the origin of pain as an interiorization of violence, both structural and symbolic, operating within the field of subjectivity and rooted in conditions such as ethnic discrimination, poverty and marginality. He attempts to demonstrate that the healing process resorts to mnemonic traces rooted on memories, silences, secrets and personal sensitivities, inscribed on the body as activators and memory fixers.