Usos políticos de la memoria: devoción, desdén y asedio de las estatuas

for some authors, the recovering of the past is a way of channeling the multiple malaises plaguing contemporary society. nevertheless, these expectations are not always realized, especially in those nations where a drastic revision of traditional values is under way. the venezuelan case is particularly complicated as a result of the rapid changes in recent years in the political and social panorama and their impact on the modes of collective representation. in venezuela, the idea of the monument linked to three movements of collective sensibility in relation to memory: devotion, distain and siege. these notions could be understood as the metaphorical correlative of behavioral models more or less established in the local imaginary. finally, memory is selectively constructed and is subjected to the imperatives and purposes of a present looking for its legitimacy in an idealized past. obviously, there is a tacit link between memory and power, which becomes more explicit in the multiple and unceasing symbolic battles over the culture of monuments.