The article examines how and under what circumstances the bananeras massacre was invoked between 1929 and 2008. The purpose is to study the role of collective memory as an articulator of justice aspirations and political practices in subaltern sectors of Colombia. During the period it was common to mention the event as an unhappy date, through acts that were mediated by the political circumstances of the time. The article concludes that the commemoration of the massacre de las bananeras served not only to remember, but also to forge and strengthen political identities in specific sectors of the population.