20 Feb 2018 (Medellin, Colombia): Leah and I go on a walking tour of the city. The tour guide, Juliana, is great. I was especially interested to learn that many of the original settlers were Marranos with ongoing traditions like symbolically scoring pork before eating it. Also, schools here apparently don’t teach their own country’s history (like, at all!), because it’s too sensitive and touchy and traumatic. I just can’t help but wonder what that will do to future generations of leaders. A delusional collective memory is one thing, but a complete whitewashing of everything just seems like an unintentional wish to repeat previous mistakes. Juliana also seems fascinated by the role memory is playing in contemporary society.
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