Imagination and empathy as an approach to the distant past in the design of printed didactic materials about colonial times in the city of San Luis

Abstract

There are no powerful didactic materials that enable the teaching of the distant local past of the city of San Luis, in particular during colonial times. The existing ones do not approach the study of History beyond the political-military analysis, which is typical of a traditional and positivist historiography. In this work, we report and examine two printed books produced by the Research Project "Educational Memories and Practices" of the Faculty of Human Sciences, of the National University of San Luis. These books, which deal with colonial times in the city of San Luis and revolve around the approach to History from daily life, collective memories, cultural heritage and historical narrative, are based on two historical tools: imagination and empathy. The analyzed works are an illustrated book entitled "How was ... the city of San Luis in colonial times?", and a book of stories called "Recreating the past. Stories to imagine the colonial times in the City of San Luis." Throughout the article we report the experience of preparing the two books, as well as the validation process.