The struggle of memory over the thickest veil of oblivion: professor Gordiano Vite Ortega

Abstract

The finiteness of human beings is what makes writing about them interesting, and the recognition of the complexity and contradiction in their interaction in the social world is the apparent constant that characterizes them. These are the two fundamental elements of the research that began in 2014 and extended until 2020, with the prevailing objective of interpreting, through the hermeneutical analysis of discourse, the life within the school institution of the professors with 50 years or more of service within the Ministry of Public Education of the State of Hidalgo (SEPH). During that research journey, it was possible to get two interviews with professor Gordiano Vite Ortega, on whom this paper revolves, which had been only transcribed until, unfortunately, his death on January 27, 2018, when they were analyzed from a qualitative perspective, as it was considered the most accurate in the treatment of social phenomena such as his life and educational work. The findings shown here focus on the life stories that emerged from the oral history approach while recognizing that the researchers "are the source before us and we know it personally". (Portelli, 2016, p. 34). The stories were obtained through in-depth interviews and tell his experiences from 1949 to 1956 in two aspects: a) as a secondary school student and a normalista in the architectural space of the former hacienda called el Mexe, where the Normal Rural "Luis Villarreal" was located, and b) his incorporation into the Hidalgo teaching profession from 1956 until his death in January 2018. The narrative story methodology with triangulated stories was followed, being the life story the tripod point, but complemented with the testimonies of other people, documentary sources, transcripts, and files related to the life of Prof. Vite Ortega. The whole process is framed from a qualitative perspective as it is considered suitable for dealing with social phenomena. The results shown here focus on his life as a student of Mexe Hidalgo from 1949 to 1956 and his incorporation into the hidalguense teaching profession from that year until his death in January 2018. It was a try to follow the methodology of a life story with the guideline of (Bolívar, 2001) as a triangulated story, being the tripod point life history, but supplemented with the testimonies of others, documentary sources, transcripts or files related to the life in question.