The Battle of Ayacucho (December 9, 1824):

Culture and memory of an event

Abstract

The Battle of Ayacucho (December 9, 1824) is an important event in the contemporary history of Peru and the Latin American nations, which was commemorated since the beginning of the Republic. However, little is known about the cultural and memory aspects of the event. Following the method of George Duby (a French historian) and the sources elaborated by the same participants of the battle and the first historiographical texts, this document tries to realize an “ethnography” of the battle to later analyze the cultural and symbolic framework in which the fact is recorded. It also seeks to study the construction of memory about the battle and how the encounter was transformed into a historical event. It proposes that the battle of Ayacucho was a warlike performance that conforms to the characteristics and strategies of the Napoleonic wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, the combat was historicized in the narratives of the officers who participated in it and the 19th century historians, who transformed it into a vital historical fact.