Medellín: Narratives of trauma and exclusion in the works of Colombian journalists

Abstract

This article traces the discursive representation of cultural trauma and social exclusion of the inhabitants of low-income neighborhoods of Medellín in the reportage written by Colombian journalists. The three books written by Ricardo Aricapa, Alonso Salazar and Juan Camilo Castañeda Arboleda cover the period from the 1980s, years of extreme violence, to the first decades of the new millennium, representing marginalized people dragged into the narco business, youth gangs and armed conflict. The article’s aim is to examine how violent urban life is represented in the aforementioned reportage and how these books function as secondary witnesses to cultural trauma. By including the voices of  the marginalized groups and incorporating them to the national discourse, these books demand emotional, institutional and symbolic reparation and reconstruction.