Feeling the boundaries of normality – ‘tristeza’ and the restitution of community in the aftermath of violence

Abstract

This article considers the impact of violence on the circulation of affect in a community of relocated internally displaced people in Guatemala shortly after the end of the conflict. It argues that the affective economy of the community of Primavera binds people through feelings of sadness or tristeza that define both the contours of the community and normalised behaviour within. Violence claimed many lives, destroyed communities and challenged deep-rooted cultural assumptions about what it meant to be a decent human being. Through feelings of tristeza people were able to feel their way back to a sense of normality after living 14 years in the jungle. Tristeza stuck to certain actions, actors and social conditions, realigned subject positions and social conduct. This opened up the possibility for the emergence of a new sociality grounded in collective affective memories of violence and loss.