CENTRO DE MEMORIA, PAZ Y RECONCILIACIÓN

This memorial for peace and reconciliation was conceived and designed during a time of war, to honour the memory of the victims of the armed conflict and to help build a culture of peace. Architect Juan Pablo Ortiz's design was chosen to build this memorial center, one of whose distinctive features is that thousands of victims of the conflict from every region of the country made their contribution. Their handfuls of earth, inserted in glass tubes, tell their story and the story of the country (the conflict over land is a major element in the birth of guerrilla warfare and armed conflict). The glass tubes were integrated into the walls of the Memorial de la Vida, a meeting place for social organizations, victims of the conflict and people in the process of reintegrating into civilian life. Several spaces make up the memorial center: the interpretive Café de la Memoria, designed in the style of the 1950s (the era of the progressive leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, assassinated in 1948), which tells the story of the conflict; the Manos por la Paz installation, created with molds of the hands of 18 Nobel Peace Prize laureates; the garden where victims' organizations have planted flowers, including the forget-me-not, nicknamed "Don't forget me"; the Somos generación de Paz auditorium, where meetings, workshops and conferences are held. A visit to this memorial provides a better understanding of the challenges of peace-building.