Meu pé de mirindiba florido: os lugares de memórias dos idosos em Porto Franco-MA

Abstract

The research aimed to understand how elderly residents represent their places of memory in Porto Franco, Maranhão, seeking the evocation of memories (Halbwachs, 1990) of historically subalternized and silenced subjects (Spivak, 2010). Through these recollections and their reinterpretations, the study investigated how they contribute to the construction of the identity and history of the people of Porto Franco. The analysis was based on the interpretation of the category “Place of Memory” (Nora, 1993) as a field of disputes and symbolic struggles, linking it to the contributions of Oral History theories and methodologies (Alberti, 2005) and studies on the memory of the elderly (Bosi, 1994), to understand how these spaces, when narrated, can become cultural heritage. Data were collected through ten semi-structured interviews and informal conversations conducted at the Elderly Community Center (CCTI). In critical opposition to the hegemonic narrative that shapes the history of Porto Franco, it was evident that places of memory, in addition to preserving recollections, also reveal processes of exclusion and silencing. It was further observed how stigmatized spaces, such as Pé de Mirindiba, even located in a peripheral área, can acquire symbolism and representations for the interlocutors, in a way similar to Pé de Tarumã for Waldemar Pereira (1997). The narratives reveal that memories, constituted and re-signified in the dialogue between space and experience, carry nuances that oscillate between nostalgia and suffering.