Cultural Diversity and the Use of Historical Heritage as Leisure

8/9/2019 Cultural Diversity and the Use of Historical Heritage as Leisure

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND THE USE OF HISTORICAL HERITAGE AS LEISURE

PLACES

Prof. Dr. Antonio Carlos Machado Guimares

Universidade do Vale do Paraba So Jos dos Campos SP- [email protected]

Ana Carolina Marini Figueira dos Santos

Universidade do Vale do Paraba So Jos dos Campos SP- Brazil

[email protected]

Key-words:Public Space; Historical Heritage; Cultural Diversity; inequality

Abstract:

In 1996, a property of a traditional family was incorporated by Municipal Government andconverted in a public park in So Jos dos Campos (State of So Paulo, Brazil). Formerly, it was a

complex, comprising a farm, the installations of the first textile factory of the city, also including

the homes of the owners and of the employees; so that this area achieved a remarkable relevance for

the historical heritage of the city. It comprises the gardens projected by Roberto Burle Marx a home

designed by Rino Levi; both included among the most important names of the modern Brazilian

architecture in 20th

Century. How people use this historical heritage in their leisure time? What is

more attractive for a heterogeneous set of users there? These were our departure questions. In our

approach, we seek for the relation of the form with sociological and anthropological variables,

leading the perception and the use of that public space.


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Presentation

The increasing of industrialization and urbanization, with an accelerated population growth,

impacted very strongly the life style and sociability in So Jos dos Campos. The effects are alsofelt in the form and usage of in leisure places that are located in this city. In this work, we are going

to approach of the Burle Marx Park; where it's possible to exam a particular combination of the

shortage of leisure places, which reaches mainly the inhabitants of the peripheral neighborhoods,

and a specific process of recovering of important stages of the History of the city. In such

discussion, we intend to relate the construction of collective memories to the scale of places like

that, considering what we perceive as an disagreement between the project by planners and the

used by frequenters, in other words; within a process in which a metropolitan park is converted in a

juxtaposition of neighborhood leisure places.

A Brief Characterization of the City and its History

So Jos dos Campos is located between the two biggest cities in Brazil. Its located about

90 km from So Paulo and 300 km from Rio de Janeiro. Its economy is mainly bound to high

technology industries, particularly those related to aerospace activities. As result, its inhabitants

hold a high level in their life condition. The City occupies the 32nd position within the Human

Development rank in Brazil and the 11th among the 645 municipalities of the State.

However, contrasting with this global situation, it's possible to observe deep inequality


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among the social segments that live there. This also reaches the distribution of public services in

the urban, in what we detach the concentration of the main leisure places in the core of the city

(figure 1, above)

The authors also measured the difference in the amount of public squares available in each

region. Herein, we can observe numbers varying from 3 until 6 squares by group of 10,000

inhabitants, with the municipal average of 5 squares (Table 1).

1

2010

* ** 25.12 15

3.1 15 4

5.1 1 3

0.3 5

13.10 5 4

1.13 4 4

52.0 245 5

source:Tomazette e Costa, 2001

* 2000 data

** Square per 10.000

The available space is short for a discussion in deep. However, its important to detach two

factors in basis of this distribution. At first, the accelerated increased of the population and the

urban area of the Municipality in the last decades. The municipality population totalized 148.332 in

1970. It jumped to 629921 in the last census, realized in 20101. Herein it's added the pattern of

inequality in offering public resources that is observed in Brazil. The common situation in our most

industrialized cities is the poorest living at peripheral areas with shortage in infrastructure and

public services offering, including the leisure ones.

As result of this development process, its important to mention the expressive number of

migrants in So Jos dos Campos, coming from another cities of the State, other states and even

from other countries. Most of them live in the city for a small while. In 2000, the Brazilian Institute of

Geography and Statistics collected a sample of the inhabitants of this city. Its data revealed that

about 16 percent of the individuals 15 or more years old were living in So Jos dos Campos for

less than 5 years.2. In view of that, we think it's hard to find an actual sense of belonging within a

1 Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics2 Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Microdata of 2000 census.


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so heterogeneous population and so new in town.

Returning to the economic history of So Jos dos Campos, we are going to detach a

transition occurred by the half of the 20th century, when the road President Dutra was inaugurated.

The new road provided for a better transit between the two majors cities in Brazil, So Paulo and

Rio de Janeiro, pushed the industrialization of the city, particularly by the action of the municipal

government, which offered several privileges, as land donation and fiscal advantages, for

implanting industries in its territory. Ever since, the city is receiving great investments by industries

and nowadays is one the most important industrial polo in the country

At the time the road was inaugurated, two branches had predominated in economic life of

the town. One of them comprised few manufactures, as weaving and ceramics. Another was the

activity by which the city was identified at that time, sanatoriums for tuberculosis treatment. So

Jos dos Campos was an important center of tuberculosis treatment in the first half of 20th

Century. By the time this was the main business in town.

The advance in medicine techniques, with the obsolescence of the sanatoriums, pushed

the displacement of the economical life in town. Ever since, the traditional branches are being

replaced by the modern, with modern industries and high technology agencies taking place its

territory. However, this wasnt a linear process, in manner it produced several towns living side by

side in the same territory, while the industrialization process was going on:

The Town was living in a stranger paradox. Several industries were installed in its

territory and local economy grew at the same speed than the observed in industrial

production at ends of the road that linked Rio and So Paulo. However, downtown

showed the appearance of a shy village that resisted the seducing of industrialization

displaced from cities like the state capitals of So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro or even

of that directly arrived from other countries. (SOUSA E SOARES, 2002).

The economic transition pushed spatial changes. The industrial activity moved from the

North Region - the Burle Marx Park is located at the boundary between North and Center Region -

to the edges of the President Dutra Road. But the major change was in self representation of the

city. Its identification as a tuberculosis treatment center was uncomfortable for the former dwellers.

Its common the stories of people who covered their noses with handkerchiefs when the train was

stopped at So Jos dos Campos railway station. The city made efforts in changing of this stigma.

It seeks change this representation for an image of high technology center and industrial

dynamism, is expressed particularly in another park at the city. The Santos Dumont Park, honoring

"the father of aviation", occupies nowadays the same area of the Ezra Sanatorium, which served

the Jewish community in the past (Figure 2)


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Figure 2

Ezra Sanatorium (1) and Santos Dumont Park (2)

Sources:(1) Pro-memory project. Universidade doVale do Paraba / City of So Jos dos

Campos.(2) Photo by Leonardo Angelo Lunard

The bind between space and collective memory in this city can be introduced from the

example of this park. It demonstrates that the population, at least the municipal government,

prefers to think its history starting from the decade of 1950'. As we can examine bellow, this

perspective is inscribed into the shape of the Park and its paths. By now, its important to detach

that the north region was the area where the former manufactures and a worker population were

concentrated. Many of the workers of the ancient industries frequently were relatives of people who

came to the city seeking for tuberculosis treatment. Nowadays, the marks of this period are

disappearing at the neighborhood, despite the resistance of some dwellers organizations.

Socio-Spatial Inequality and the Usage of Burle Marx Park

As we announced above, the park suffers the influence of a misdistribution of the leisure

equipments in the territory. It responses to the shortage of places for this practice in other regions

of the city, particularly of those related to the outdoor leisure. In the next topic, we can examine

how this impacts the bond of the place with the collective memory. By now, its important to

highlight a specific use we could notice Therein and which interferes in the scale predictable for the

area by planners.

Strictly, the parks are projected in a metropolitan scale, predictable for a contemplative

usage. In this sense, they are especially suitable for memory related practices. On the other hand,

they differ of the squares. These last ones, defined as local and neighborhood spaces, serves to

simpler activities, particularly to those related to the people sociability. Somehow, they are what


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Magnani (2000) had named as "Pedaos" (Pieces), a place of more intimicy, a place where groups

of friends feed their social relationship.

Concerning the Burle Marx Park, we are dealing with a park which cant be easily

characterized by its scale. Its structure enables a varied scope of activities, in manner that it is

used so much as place for the realization of great events, in a metropolitan scale, as a meeting

point for people from several neighborhoods. We must also consider that all these activities are for

free, which weakens the economic barriers in the users attractiveness.

Before proceeding, it's necessary to advise that in this topic and the following, we are using

preliminary data extracted from a research on this park, nowadays developed at Universidade do

Vale do Paraiba within the "Pro-Memory Project". The techniques that are being used are the

successive hiking3by the space, when we try identify some regularities of who and how uses the

space. Afterwards, we applied a survey seeking for a better characterization of their frequenters.

By now, we are in stage of interviewing and data treatment. We are also examining some croquis

and photos of the place, seeking for contrasts among different spatial cutouts, regarding their

physical characteristics and the usage of them by people.

In hiking, we notice at first that the alternatives of space are differently appropriate by the

several groups of frequenters. However, a feature seems be common to most of them, the

tendency for using narrow cutouts of the park. Thence, our definition of this park as a juxtaposition

of squares and other kinds of local equipments.

This was greatly confirmed by the results of the survey applied at beginning of our

research. Rare frequenters refer to use of two or more sites in the Park. For instance, one of them

that are mainly mentioned is the playground; that strictly is a type of equipment at the level of the

neighborhood or should be.

At first, we had advanced the idea that the public of the Park is different at labor days and

weekend, in what we could identify the differences regarding its usage. This was not confirmed by

the results of the survey. For instance, considering the variables of age and gender, we foundnumbers very close. The gender distribution is about the same at both periods, with a discrete

predominance of male (about 52%). On the other hand, the median for age is about 30 years old,

again without expressive contrast between Labor Day and weekend.

However, some differences concerning the education level of the public were noted, with a

little advantage for weekend frequenters. As we can see in the table bellow, the low education user

is more frequent in the labor days. In contrast, while it's observed a greater participation of

graduated and pos-graduated people at weekend. Herein it's important to regard the major

frequency of housewives in the labor days (38 percent, against 25 percent at weekend),

3 Magnani (2000) describe this technique as an important way to perceive the regularities of the places.


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considering that they remain out of employment market and, thus, are less pressed to efforts in

education. Anyhow, its important to notice the predominance of high school in both periods; as we

can see in the same table (Table 2, bellow).

TABLE 2Education Level of FrequentersBurle Marx Park. So Jos dos Campos. Brazil2010

EDUCATION LEVEL

Labor Day Weekend Total

n (%) n (%) n (%)

Uneducated 2 1.1 1 0.3 3 0.6Fundamental 29 15.2 33 10.6 62 12.4High School 116 60.7 189 60.8 305 60.8

Graduate 40 20.9 76 24.4 116 23.1Posgraduate 4 2.1 12 3.9 16 3.2Total 191 100.0 311 100.0 502 100.0source: survey by authors

In regarding to the differences of public profile, their origins seem the most important of

them. The characteristic of a park attending its neighborhood, that is predominant in the labor

days, is displaced by affluence of people from other areas of the city. The participation of the

dwellers at its surroundings are the majority at the middle of the week (The Park is located at the

boundary of North and Center Region), from where come about 60 percent of the users.

TABLE 3Origin of frequenters of Burle Marx Park. So Jos dos Campos.Brazil2010

REGION

Labor Day Weekend Total

n (%) n (%) n (%)

Center 30 15.7 36 11.6 66 13.2

East 15 7.9 67 21.6 82 16.4

North 85 44.5 84 27.1 169 33.7

West 9 4.7 5 1.6 14 2.8

Southeast 15 7.9 10 3.2 25 5.0

South 35 18.3 80 25.8 115 23.0

Other Cities 2 1.0 28 9.0 30 6.0

Total 191 100.0 310 100.0 501 100.0

source:survey by authors

In absolute numbers their frequency varies little. In an opposite movement, we can observe

the increase of the frequency other regions inhabitants. Among those we detach the people from

South Region, one of the poorest areas of the municipality, but one of the areas with worst

accessibility to the park (Table 3)


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Along the work, our attention was directed for the variations in the geographic origin of the

public, what seems meaningful for understanding of the usage of the park. As we insisted above,

the shortage of leisure equipments is great in the peripheral areas. In view of this, its plausible the

expectation of the Park is performing functions proper to local places, like squares and soccer

fields. Hence, more than the variation, the attractiveness the Park for disadvantaged populations isin the basis of the motivation for the usage by the dwellers from distant neighborhoods. This is

what shows us testimonials like the following:

The Park in urban center is very good for us, who have low income for

travelling. The Park is a great choice (...) near my home there is no park like

this. (Female, 39 years old)

Concluding, our first perception was confirmed in survey and interviews that followed thehiking. Apparently, everyday public of the Park, remain distant from some activities that could be

classified as metropolitan ones. In this sense, its necessary to mention the great events, which

gather a great public, for instance, the show with a popular singer in commemoration of the city

birthday in 2010. The data of Police of the State points the attendance of about 120,000 people or

the editions of the "Revealing So Paulo", a event with the duration of some days, with typical

foods, music performances, handicraft; all of them related to the various patterns that are in basis of

the culture of the State, the City and its surroundings. Such activities were mentioned only by asmall number of people (about 1 percent of the users). So, it remains the suggestion that the

metropolitan public of the Park differs largely of its everyday users.

Anyhow, this characterization of the functions of the Park introduces the issue of its role in

the construction of a collective memory shared by the city population. This is the discussion of next

topic, when we are going focus the articulation of the design, the representation of municipal

history andthe profile of the city population.

The Burle Marx Park: Collective Memories and the Social Representation of the City

In this paper we are dealing with the articulation of spatial arrangement and meaning in

recovery projects destinated to public leisure. In other words, were concerned to the new

meanings attached to historical places in such projects, considering their relationship with different

and diversified people.


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We start with the admission that something transcends the materiality of a place and its

objects. This quality was named by Halbwachs (1992) as "Collective Memory" and it is greatly

constructed by the perception the group has of their history in the territory, converting each

building, each rock in a fragment of this totality. Moreover, the author detaches, it has the capacity

in surviving to the changes, even in the absence of the former landscape

The Burle Marx Park enables the discussion of this issue. For this, it's necessary at first

remind the importance of the former property within the city history. In 1927, the Gomes family

settled in its farm one of the first industries of the town .Thence, this space still holds marks of first

stages of the industrialization process of So Jos dos Campos. Not only this, but of the previous

affairs of the property, when restricted to rural activities (a milk plant, for instance) and of the

following decades, in which we detach several examples of the modern Brazilian architecture,

projected by some of most representative professionals of the period.

At the half of 20th century, Brazil harbored many modern tendencies in several branches of

Art; popular and erudite music, theatre, movies, plastic arts and architecture. At this moment the

Gomes family, as important member of Brazilian bourgeoisie, was related to many of these artists.

Thus, we also can find buildings, paintings and gardens that are projected by acknowledged

architects and artists in Brazil. Among then, one can highlight the gardens projected by Roberto

Burle Marx, who gives the name to the Park, besides Olivio Gomes Residence, signed by Rino

Levi.

In short, we are dealing with a space which is representative of two stages of the History of

So Jos dos Campos. At first, its related to the beginning of industrialization in town, a phase

when manufactures and disease walked together. The simultaneity of industrialization and disease

represents an uncomfortable memory for the population, mainly the former ones, since the most

recent ignore the previous presence of sanatoriums in its territory. However, the two activities were

bound somehow, as in fact that within the worker population gathered relatives of patients. Related

to this stage, there is the old set of the weaving and farm installations, which are now occupied by

bureaucrat agencies. On the other hand, the space also is bound to the transition of the city, and of

the country as a whole, to the modernity, what is expressed by the architectural works of the half of

the 20th century.

This data are not only for the recognition of the importance of this historical heritage. We

are pointing the issue of how the social agents position themselves face to a transformed site.

Here, we are going to deal with 3 of them. One, condensed in the person of the planner, to who we

are going to attribute the park design in which one can recognize somehow an intention of deleting

part of the history of the city, particularly its association with the tuberculosis treatment. Another

one is related to the population of the Park surroundings, among them we detach those who were

the weaving workers or of other manufactures of the neighborhood, including their children and


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relatives that knew the previous space. At last, the new population of So Jos dos Campo, for

most of them this History remains ignored.

Starting from a characteristic of the dealing with collective memory in So Jos dos

Campos, we detach the efforts of municipal government in representing it as a modern city,

harboring high technology activities. As we mentioned above, this is expressed in spatial elements,

particularly in a park that replaced a sanatorium. In the same sense we can assist a kind of neglect

in caring places related to tuberculosis treatment by municipal government. Another of its parks is

an old sanatorium too, which was projected by Ramos de Azevedo, an acknowledged architect at

beginning of 20th century. Although, the historical importance of the place, the buildings remain

untouchable and just its gardens at outside are used4. Now, we are going to examine how the

design of the Park expresses the same tendency for deletion of the previous history of the

Municipality.

As we can see in the croquis above (figure 3), two great areas are discriminated in the

management plan of the Park. One, in blue, comprises the area of the Gomes family residence,

while the weaving area is detached in red. Notice that the space isn't used as whole as a Park,

only the area in blue. What is in red is the area used by the bureaucratic agencies and an Art

school, maintained by a cultural foundation bound to the municipal government. In the drawing, we

also detach the two main entrances at the space. A green arrow, identified by the letter "P", is

showing the access to the Park area. Another, brown and identified as "G", points to entrance to

government agencies and the art school.

Its important to highlight the different architectural features at each area. The weaving

buildings and others that accompany it are built in patterns from the beginning of the 20th century.

4When the government agents refer to its future use, they dont say a single word that points to the sanatorium stage

memory


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They contrast with the residence and its surroundings. In that, the architectural pattern is

representative of the modern architecture in Brazil (Figure 4).

FIGURE 4: THE TWO AREAS AT PRESENT

1. The Rino Levi Project

2. Burle Marx Gardens as Park

3. The Previous Building of Weaving

4. An abandoned Swimming Pool. Behind, the weaving building.

Photos by Davi Carneiro Guimares

Moreover, we bounce here the barriers that hinder an easy transit between both areas. With

the example of another park, we intended to show a practice of hiding part of the municipal history.

There, this was expressed by the replacement of a former sanatorium, nowadays a park honoring

the aerospace activities. In Burle Marx, the same appears in a spatial segregation of the older

area. First, by the separate entrances, when already in the Park area, people are induced to dont

move themselves to another place by the precarious paths between them (Figure 5).

Before referring to the users that inhabit at the city for short while, we are going to approach the

ancient dwellers of the neighborhood. Herein, itll be raised the issue the relation of the space and

the construction of their collective memories. In such cases, we are dealing with fragments of

personal and social history attached to places and objects by people who grew up in the

neighborhood, including those who worked in property before its converting as a park.

I was born in Santana (the neighborhood of the Park). Before, my father worked


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inside, when it still was the Olvio Gomes home. I grew up visiting the place. Fifty

years ago. There was no avenue, even the viaduct. The weaving had the whole

thing. (Man 53 years old)

FIGURE 5

Port option between the Park and the industrial area

Photo by authors

This fragment of speech puts out another kind of force intervening in perception of space,

its relation with the personal and collective memory of neighborhood dwellers. Regard of this one

can mention the relative stability of the population who lives around the Park. Also, their

engagement in preservation of the local memory in actions that unfold in the struggle for preserving

of the ancient railway station and other architectural marks or in the event that honors the

"mineiros" referring to origin of the first inhabitants of the neighborhood, the state of Minas Gerais

(KOJIO, 2009). This speech contrasts with the representation of the place and its history that we

could identify in official policies. In that, the meaning of the place is rewritten in the publicity

directed to the enlarged population of the city and to tourists, with the aid the design of the Park,

which highlights some elements and hamper the perception of others.

On the other hand, we cant forget the people who grew up in another neighborhood and

just recently knew this area of the city, when already there were the avenue and the viaduct and

the weaving didnt exist anymore. It is a great number of person to who one must add those who

came from other cities and are living in So Jos dos Campos for a short while.

For this last group, the history of the place has no relevance and the social representation

of high technology city, which is promoted by the government publicity, is more attractive. Among

them, the mention to the historical marks in the space, as the residence projected by Rino Levi, are


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rare. Even the Burle Marx gardens are referred in generic terms as the trees, without the bind of

the work with the author and with his historical importance.

Above, we intended characterize the use of the Park as a response to the shortage in

offering public leisure services in other areas of the city. This situation also reaches the inhabitants

of the North region, where the Park is located, due its extension and the few equipments Therein.

One must recognize too that the local population is changing, despite a greater stability observed

than in other neighborhoods. So, even among the local dwellers we found people weakly

concerned with the neighborhood and its history. Such ties, only could be perceived by using of

qualitative methods, since they are absent in the most of the interviewed or they remain hidden in a

few of the ancient dwellers. We also saw that the proposed design by the planners press the break

of the tie between the site and the history of the place. Thereby, the design interacts with the

frequenters profile, in what we detach their heterogeneity - social, cultural and geographic.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

In this work, we departure from the issue of the differences inscribed in the planner's

conception and the sense that is revealed by the users practice, not forgetting that much of what

the people can perceive from space is a result of an imposition by the design. The project induces

some articulations between some places, while hinders other of them. Referring ourselves to

Certeau's work (1980), we understood the design as a grammar, which conducts the speech

possibilities, while the last comprises the actual manner of using the built space.

Although we are dealing with preliminary data, it was possible recognize two factors

pressing the use. First, the shortage of leisure places in other regions of the city. This displaces the

function of equipments like square to the metropolitan park, which enabled us to perceive the

functioning of the Park as a juxtaposition of smaller cutouts. Somehow, there is interference in the

scale of the planned by the actual use of it.

The other element identified was a collective memory that still remains among the dwellers

of Park surroundings. Many of them were workers in the ancient weaving or their children, who

was used to visiting the place in other times. For them, a hiking in Park is such a return to the "old

good times".

Dialoguing with the place history we must detach an impulse toward a representation of the

city as technological center, which faces a place identified mainly with a historical stage that the

new inhabitants don't know and the old want to forget. Herein, the paths that hid of the marks of the

ancient weaving. Even the presence of examples of modern architecture is unkempt, as in a Burle

Marx wall painting, hidden in a garage (figure 6).


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We are not proposing here a freezing of memory. However, it seems important it be

considered in a context, which we can observe a great number of migrants in population. The

appropriation of this history is condition for their inclusion in the city life and for the citizenship of

those who has their collective memory related to that period.

FIGURE 6

Wall Paintings by Roberto Burle Marx

Photo by authors

REFERENCES:

CERTEAU, Michel de. L'invention du quotidien. Paris: Union gnrale d'ditions, 1980

HALBWACHS, Maurice, On collective memory, Chicago (IL), The University of Chicago Press,

1992

KOJIO, Ndia. Polticas Pblicas de Patrimnio em So Jos dos Campos. 2009. UNIVAP.

Dissertao de Mestrado

MAGNANI, Jose Guilherme Cantor. Quando o campo a cidade. In MAGNANI, J. G. C, TORRES,

L. L. (org). Na metropole : textos de Antropologia urbana. So Paulo: EDUSP, 2000

SOUSA, Ana; SOARES, L. Laerte. Modernidade e Urbanismo Sanitrio. So Jos dos Campos:

A.M.S. Sousa, L. L. Soares, 2002.

TOMAZETTE, Marcela; COSTA, Sandra. Mapeamento das Praas Pblicas de So Jos dos

Campos. Anais do XV Simpsio Brasileiro de Sensoriamento Remoto. Curitiba, PR, Brazil, 2011.

Cultural Diversity and the Use of Historical Heritage as Leisure

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