Historical Memory

Memory and history are two concepts that are familiar to us and, in principle, that we have assimilated, but both are open to manipulation, interpretation, and multiple perspectives. Sometimes biased, more often distorted, and generally susceptible to periodic revision.

Memory, made up of our recollections, is a database, in which there are no folders, but layers of sensations, images, and incomplete sequences, which we like to retrieve, intuitively, to savor them, and rationally, to compare them with current reality, to establish comparisons and make decisions. There are several types of memory, including declarative (or explicit) memory: This contains the facts of the world and personal events from the past that need to be consciously retrieved. Episodic memory: This contains information relating to events that occurred at a specific time and place. Reference memory: This contains recent and remote information obtained from previous experiences.

History, on the other hand, is a science whose mission is to study the events of the past and, so to speak, collective memory. Therefore, hardware and software are complementary concepts, to use a computer metaphor. Historical memory allows us to reevaluate our memories, revisit them, and place them through the prism of the present.