The (in) visible heritage of industrialization: landscapes recognition in Cubatão/SP
Industrial heritage; industrial landscape; Ambiental degradation; preservation policies
Industrial heritage has achieved considerable interest in Brazil, including on relationship with the landscape, through various aspects and approaches. This stems from the processes of deindustrialization or economic restructuring that resulted in varied testimonies, generally abandoned or forgotten and whose protection has been slow and conflicting in view of their vulnerability. Also, in the face of political and economic pressures to reoccupy areas with new developments, in which the agencies protection often does not have decision-making power. Thus, considering the dilemmas and challenges of preserving industrial legacies today, this thesis proposes an analysis of the landscape, based on the industrial material and infrastructure legacy of the municipality of Cubatão-SP, as a way of contributing to the debate on facing the possibilities of preservation and recognition of industrial landscapes. In Cubatão, the formation of industrial heritage is related to the factors of its location as an important connector between the port of Santos and a broader hinterland, since the 17th century, as well as the formation of an industrial center from 1950. Howevwer, the same time these factors allowed a concentration of industrial testimonies of high patrimonial value, they also implied a strong pressure related to the expansion and modernization of the Port of Santos, the transport routes and the pole itself, with the continuous destruction of landmarks of the industrialization of the region and, the erasure of places and memories related to the industrial process. Added to these factors, the environmental issues that stigmatized Cubatão as “Death Valley”, led to a narrative focused on environmental destruction, making it difficult for the residents themselves to identify with the landscape when reacting to the industry. Therefore, we carried out an analysis of the formation of the region's landscape as well as the construction of the resulting environmental narrative; we proceeded to survey the industrial material legacy and the perception that this legacy has in its relationship with the landscape, generally focused on nature and, in an imaginative perception, of what one wants to see, and not in reality and, also, in affective memories from places of working life. It was found that the challenges of preserving industrial testimonies in the region go beyond local issues and are placed on a territorial scale, where new conditions for valuing industrial legacies or their preservation can be considered both for active testimonies and for those abandoned or forgotten. or even, places of historical importance related to industrialization, from the recognition of the different landscapes that are related there or are a result of the regional industrialization process, but not yet understood in the cultural perspective or in the field of cultural heritage.