The threshold of memory

The primary objective of "El umbral de la memoria" is to preserve the collective memory of the seven provinces of the department of Huancavelica (highlands of Peru), which suffered and resisted the process of internal violence by Sendero Luminoso during the 1980s and 1990s. The present effort focuses on a fundamental aspect: the testimonies of the people of Huancavelica. Certainly, more than 20 years of violence could not be summarized all at once or in a single book. But a determining factor for national reconstruction is memory. The process of gathering what happened and the experience of the population allow us to access a realm of their memories that is crucial, contested, and fundamental on the path of reconstructing history. In this work, the accounts of the protagonists are decisive—their ambiguous impressions in the early days of the conflict, fearful or, more often than not, revealing their condition as victims surprised by a situation unprecedented in their lives, threatening at first; cruel and merciless once their activities were confirmed.