César López, the Escopetarra and the Memorialization of the Colombian Armed Conflict: Technologies and Apparatuses of Care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53971/2718.658x.v13.n21.37846Keywords:
musical gifts, sonic memorialization, technologies of care, ontological multiplicity, symbolic reparationsAbstract
Colombian musician and activist César López has comforted victims of the Colombian civil war throughout his career. His songs, albums, and artistic-social projects memorialize painful recent-history events and human rights violations. In 2003, López created the escopetarra, a musical instrument that combines a rifle and a guitar. Thereafter, López has been a UN messenger of non-violence. I consider that his compositions are not only sonic memorials but are also musical gifts and, thus, technologies of care. Moreover, as Lopez’s works challenges the logics of heteronormative masculinity, I analyze this case through the feminist and gender studies lenses. I support these claims with data gathered through netnography of several online-concerts and talks, interviews with López, reading journalistic sources, and observing Lopez’s interventions’ online records. I propose that López’s musical gifts operate homologously to memorializations as both share the categorization of technologies of care. Finally, I conclude that Lopez’s activism promotes the democratization of care as he destabilizes the exclusive association of care to the feminine and proposes new masculinities.
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