¿And where is the lampalagua? A review of the Museo de los Caudillos and Villa Chepes as places of memory

Abstract

This essay explores the ways in which memory challenges a heritage space in the town of Villa Chepes,located in the district. Rosario Vera Peñaloza, Province of La Rioja. Several aspects of oral memory areaddressed in relation to its spatiality, based on theoretical perspectives that analyze heritage as theconstruction of meanings marked by the dispute of various social actors. With a brief tour about the area ofVilla Chepes and the Museo de los Caudillos, we seek to give an account of their trajectories from a localperspective. It is proposed that chepeña memory, anchored in the historical events of the 19th century,transformed those spatialities by constructing places for the past. Places that are built as a device for collectiveevocation, in which the past is revalued while local identity is reaffirmed. Places in which the municipal statealso influenced with the objective of conserving and protecting. The multiple narratives that cross theselandscape marks are discussed here, as well as the tensions that are woven between the different actors inthe process of heritagization and enhancement of these sites.