A Cidade de São Luís, Mefistófeles e o Povo: ações e pensamento das elites oligárquicas na construção da ponte José Sarney na concretude da modernidade periférica (1900 -1970)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to provide an overview of the urban changes in the city of São Luís do Maranhão, discussing the main ideas of conservative intellectuals, who defended the valorization of the colonial urban layout, and of progressive intellectuals, who believed that the path to modernity lay through the remodeling of urban space. We will highlight the city's expansion plans during the administrations of Saboya Ribeiro and Pedro Neiva de Santana, who, through laws and decrees, promoted the revitalization of buildings and the widening of avenues, resulting in the expansion of the city and the integration of peripheral neighborhoods. When addressing the 1950s, we will analyze the political dissent within the State of Maranhão, as well as the project for the city of Brasília, associated with the proposals of Juscelino Kubitschek, which aimed at modernization through the construction of bridges. We will also discuss the inequalities between the city and the agrarian reform projects for the countryside, in the context of João Goulart Basic Reforms and their influence in Maranhão. In this sense, we will present the transition period from Vitorinismo to Sarneysmo, which emerged in the state's politics through the discourse of a new and developmental Maranhão, materialized in the construction of housing units, dams and other urban reforms, among which the construction of the São Francisco Bridge stands out, seen as the overcoming of a peripheral modernity. The theoretical and methodological contribution of the research is of a qualitative nature, considering the web of relations between the local and the national, driven by the game of scales (Revel, 2010). To this end, the newspapers A Pacotilha, O Diário do Norte, O Globo, a newspaper de Notícias, a newspaper À Tarde and Jornal do Povo will be used and analyzed, with a specific focus on Jornal O Imparcial and newspaper do Dia, in order to understand the urbanization process, the political dissidences in the state and how the José Sarney Bridge was conceived and represented by the press, impacting the formation of architectural heritage in a relationship between center and periphery. In addition, we will use tables, maps and images as mechanisms for illustration, interpretation and production of discourses, considering the diverse economic, social, political and cultural realities that arose throughout the period analyzed.