Historia Crítica

Hist. Crit. | eISSN 1900-6152 | ISSN 0121-1617

Wounded Memory: El Salvador’s cIvil War in the Childhood Memory of a Gang Member

No. 40 (2010-01-01)
  • Mario Zúñiga Núñez
https://doi.org/10.7440/histcrit40.2010.05

Abstract

This article analyzes the childhood memory of a gang member who grew up, from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, in the middle of El Salvador’s civil war. Hector, the pseudonym I gave him, was a guerillero, soldier, emigrant, and also, when he became a teenager, a gang member. His story reflects a large number of historical processes. The aim of this article is to analyze this simultaneity of processes as a totality present in the life story of this person. To do so, I present Hector’s testimony, framed in the context of the civil war. Then I use various concepts (like memory, violence, and institutionalization) to understand the story within the network of social relations in El Salvador.

Keywords: memory, gangs, childhood, civil war, El Salvador