This essay compare memorials built to remember in the public space the human rights violations from the State violence in ibero-american cities among others. It researches the processes and circumstances that give the monuments lasting visibility in the urban environment, avoiding that they become invisible, and no to be forget its purpose to avoid suffering that they commemorate to future generations.  It shows an analytic matrix composed by the place, purpose and representation concepts to examine the factors that give to an inert structure the power to build a collective memory.