Between appreciation of the modernist architecture and memory erasure: the case of Cataguases - MG

Abstract

Deleted from the "gold civilization", Cataguases had his colonization in the early nineteenth century linked to agriculture and coffee growing. In the twentieth century, it received some industries, especially the textile and metal industry, encouraging its development. This explains a number of recent monuments, signed by some of the most important artists of modernism, which allows residents of Cataguases speak of a "modernist movement" of the city, yet its urban space presents a wealth of architectural typologies neo-colonial, eclectic and art deco. However, only the modernist architecture is exalted as much relevance by local institutions and by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, responsible for the preservation of this urban area since 1994. Thus, it is intended in this text discuss issues relating to listing the urban area preservation the Cataguases as national cultural heritage, especially the delimitation of perimeter protection  that occurred mainly by architectural valuation at the expense of safeguarding the memory of groups social inhabiting the city, in particular, the working memory.