Anniversaries and Key Dates: A Re-Reading of Albalucía Ángel’s Estaba la pájara pinta sentada en el verde limón in the Framework of the Day of Victims, and Vice Versa

This article offers a feminist-informed critical re-reading of the Colombian author Albalucía Ángel’s novel Estaba la pájara pinta sentada en el verde limón (1975). It proposes a series of re-readings of the novel in the context of April 9—a key date in the life of the protagonist, Ana, and the date designated today as the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with Victims. The analysis reveals that the gendered concerns raised by Ángel half a century ago anticipate contemporary discourses on the Colombian armed conflict, especially by those women’s activist groups who have advocated for a deconstruction of the patriarchal underpinnings of the conflict. The article also re-reads the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with Victims through Ángel’s critique of the primacy of the Gaitán narrative in the novel and her attempt to interweave the Gaitán narrative with a feminist counter-narrative.