Abstract

PEROCHENA, Camila. Memory and Uses of the Past in Mexico during the Felipe Calderón Administration. Secuencia [online]. 2025, n.121, e2396.  Epub Mar 31, 2025. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i121.2396.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the official memory presented during the administration of Felipe Calderón (FC). During that period, debates revolved around whether the PAN should offer a different narrative of the past from that portrayed by the PRI as “official history.” Based largely on a concentrated analysis of all presidential speeches referring to the past, we pose two central questions as guides for exploration. What were the interpretations of the past used during FC’s administration? What meanings and historicities were attributed to various characters, actors and events in Mexican history? The argument put forward in this paper is that FC deployed a “low intensity” memorial regime whose uses of the past were linked to the legitimization of courses of action in the present, and the ways of conceiving politics and the identity of the ruling party.

Keywords : memory; bicentennial; PAN; Calderón; centenary.

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