Darning the history: Narratives and disputes over historical meanings of political action at the end of dictatorship in Chile

Este artículo aborda algunos de los problemas epistemológicos que enfrentamos al plantear un estudio sobre un período histórico reciente. Las preguntas de investigación que surgen a propósito del proceso de democratización chileno (1983-1990) se hacen a partir de la tensión entre teoría e historia. Pero esta es solo una tensión aparente, si pensamos el análisis de este proceso político particular como un intento de interpretación de la historia. Esta tarea, no solo exige retomar el debate teórico acerca de quiénes y bajo qué circunstancias fueron los actores políticos centrales en el fi n de la dictadura. También, invita a discutir la pertinencia de la tradición hermenéutica para exponer diversas maneras de narrar la historia y, en este sentido, para concebir la democratización de Chile como un problema que puede ser abordado desde la reconstrucción de diversos relatos del cambio político. This article approaches the epistemological issues that are confronted at the moment to raise a study of recent historical period. The questions that emerge within the research of democratic process in Chile (1983-1990) are made from the tension between theory and history. It is proposed that this tension is just apparent, whether the analysis of this particular political process is considered as an attempt of historical interpretation. Th is task demands to retake the theoretical debate about those who were the main political actors and the circumstances in which they acted during the dictatorship, as well as it invites to discuss about the relevance of hermeneutical tradition to approach the diff erent manners to narrate history and, by the same way, to conceive the democratization in Chile as an issue that also can be studied throughout the reconstruction of stories about political change