ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how oral histories of the dead nourish the formation of communities of memory and prompt Medellin's city dwellers to become socially active survivors. It discusses the formation of temporary communities for remembering the dead, and their grounding in a sense of place. The chapter looks at death and the dead as narrative threads woven through local oral history and symbolic imagery, and as central organizers of daily interactions among youth. "Disappeared" is another form of naming the absent person and his/her body. There are two cultural constructions in Medellin's youths' memories of "the disappeared." The memories built around the witnessing of death document losses and begin a public discourse about the disruption of the everyday lives and public spaces. The memory of the death-event and of the dead was transformed into another powerful memory about the group, and about the community's profoundly vivid sense of life.
