ABSTRACT
For communities transitioning out of war, the restoration of victims’ identities is fundamental. Following the Colombian armed conflict and her work on the forensic identification of victims, María Fernanda Olarte-Sierra addresses the case of Leidy, whose name and history got (partially) lost in the technolegal impositions of forensic modes of identification. She begins with a letter to Leidy to reflect on the effect naming victims of enforced disappearance might have for people and communities connected by suffering and social dislocation. Olarte-Sierra asks what happens when a victim's name becomes invisible because it does not match their birth certificate? Can we build peace and acknowledge the victims of mass violence if we fail to account for the complexities carried in their names?
