“The little park Ducuara”, a ritual center of the University of Tolima, 1984-1987"

Abstract

The article deals with fragments of the university experience of a group of undergraduate students in Social Sciences, led by Arnulfo Ducuara Contreras, a political militant, and writer, who, together with this author and others, founded the political group “La JODA” (Organized Youth y Democrática), which conceived an innovative style of doing politics and exercising criticism in the historical conjuncture of 1984 to 1987, during which it came to configure an emblematic space and ritual center on the campus of the University of Tolima. At this juncture, Colombia experienced the Popayán earthquake, the beginning of the dialogue with the guerrillas and the peace process of President Belisario Betancur, the seizure of the Palace of Justice, the Armero catastrophe, the VI Congress on the History of Colombia, the death of Arnulfo Ducuara and the diaspora of the “La JODA” Group. In addition to literary writings and political work, Arnulfo Ducuara made relevant contributions to the Academy at the University at that time when they began to talk about investigation and thesis preparation as a degree requirement in the Bachelor of Social Sciences by inspiring and contributing to a research work on the agrarian conflict in the indigenous area of southern Tolima, carried out by his teachers José del Carmen Buitrago and César Velandia. The purpose of this article is to enunciate and analyze the historical origin of Ducuara Park and its symbolic-mythical value as one of the emblematic spaces of the university campus. With this story, it aspires to recover memory and guide the task of redefining academic spaces as sources of institutional identity formation.