Places of Memory and History:

The Documentation and Memory Center as a Research Space

Abstract

The study examines the Documentation and Memory Center (CEDOC/I) of UNICENTRO as an archival space that goes beyond technical functions, establishing itself as a place of memory and resistance. Drawing on Pierre Nora, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Maurice Halbwachs, it discusses its role as a heterotopia of time, capable of gathering and juxtaposing distinct temporalities, thereby reconfiguring historical narratives. Far from being a mere repository, CEDOC/I operates as a symbolic and political field, preserving traces of lived experience and fostering counter-narratives, especially of marginalized subjects. Its function is both conservative and insurgent, mediating collective memory and challenging what should be remembered or forgotten. From this perspective, archives are understood as spaces of historical elaboration, fractures, and continuities, where the historian interprets documentary gaps and silences. CEDOC/I exemplifies a place of memory in which the fragmented past remains alive, inviting critical listening and the ethical exercise of remembrance.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/21829748/cem21v1