Abstract

SUAREZ TREJO, Javier Teófilo. Viral Hearts. From Pain to Joy as a Post-Violence Policy in Peru. Latinoamérica [online]. 2019, n.69, pp.11-41. ISSN 2448-6914.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cialc.24486914e.2019.69.57124.

In Peru, memory studies after the internal armed conflict (1980-2000) have focused mainly on 1) the pain of the victim and 2) the analysis of their discourse. The Argentinean sociologist Roberto Jacoby proposes “strategies of joy” as alternative ways of remembering and acting creatively in contexts of post-violence. The article describes and analyzes two spaces where these strategies generate ways of dealing with a violent past. First, the ayla, Andean festival described in a story by José María Arguedas, is represented as a form of organization that empowers the community by turning it into a heart (sonqo) able to meet with its painful past. Second, the rock concert as a collective aesthetic praxis of the Argentinian band Virus proposes “to leave the inner hole” of the past of violence to promote “surfaces of pleasure” as forms of youth empowerment.

Keywords : Joy; Music; Body; Pedagogy; Empowerment.