During the sixties, several different movements of Colombian left assumed the task of remembering Jorge Eliecer Gaitan's murder and of taking up the Gaitanism's legacy in order to generate a political impact. This paper analyzes the presence of Gaitanism in Colombian new left during those years, taking the Movimiento Obrero Estudiantil Campesino (MOEC) (Worker, Student and Peasant Movement) 7 January. Based on Tzvetan Todorov's arguments about literal memory and exemplary memory, this paper exposes how the MOEC 7January assumed gaitanism, that is, as a recovered event that has been read in an exemplary way by such movement.