Memory and Architecture

4: Patrimony and Cultural Identity: The Coffee Plantation System—Paraíba Valley, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

chapter four Patrimony and Cultural Identity The Coffee Plantation System— Paraíba Valley, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil MARIA de LOURDES LUZ and ANA LÚCIA VIEIRA DOS SANTOS Architecture represents the history, tradition, and culture of a specific community. By protecting the cultural patrimony, we are contributing to the rescue and consolidation of the community’s social identity in its historical evolution. Memory has a fundamental role both in the transformation and in the preservation of cultural manifestations. The built environment is an important mnemonic agent that makes visible the differentiation of places, informs us of how society appropriates space, and instructs us to behave appropriately . Without memory there is neither human present nor future. Memory works as biological-social instrument of identity, conservation, and development, allowing events to flow legibly. Without memory, change would create alienation and dissociation. We believe that the built environment is an expressive indicator of each society’s modus vivendi. It furnishes elements for a better comprehension of the social group in which it was generated, and remains essential to the study of social life. Furthermore, as our investigation shows, the built environment provides a firm, supporting ground at times of rapid cultural change. Brazil is a melting pot of different cultures. From the first| 99 100 | Maria de Lourdes Luz and Ana Lúcia Vieira Dos Santos fig. 4.1. Map of the Rio de Janeiro State. Drawn by Maria de Lourdes Luz and Ana Lúcia Vieira Dos Santos. days of colonization, when Portuguese, Native Americans, and Africans started to construct a new world, to the last hundred years, when immigration from Europe and Asia contributed to the building of the independent country , very different traditions, habits, techniques, and uses were brought together , constructing a new identity. In order to introduce our architecture students to the concepts of memory , patrimony, and cultural identity, we turned our attention to the nineteenth century, when Brazil became an independent nation. It was a period of great social, political, and economic transformations, with important changes in the architectonic types established during the three preceding centuries. Through the study of traditional architecture, we explore the relationships between architectonic form and value systems, which signify deeper structures of society. These systems are responsible for differences between “cultures ,” and can only be apprehended through interpretations based on culture and social life. As we study the architectonic production related to sociocultural and historical contexts, we contribute to the redefinition and reaffirmation of regional identities, and to a better understanding of people in society. Our research has focused on the coffee plantation system. Coffee formed the economic basis of the Brazilian Empire (1822–1889) throughout the nineteenth century, though with varying degrees of significance. The coffee plantations, concentrated in the Paraíba Valley during the early nineteenth century, became a symbol of the power and progress of the Brazilian Empire. By the second half of the nineteenth century, there were close to a hundred farms, many of which were abandoned later due to the shift of the coffee industry from the Paraíba Valley, in Rio de Janeiro, to São Paulo; the political and economic changes that culminated in the abolition of slavery in 1888; and the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in 1889. A Brief History of Brazil In 1808, as Napoleon invaded Portugal, the Portuguese court moved to Rio de Janeiro. Rio became the capital of the Portuguese kingdom, and both Portugal and its colonies were ruled from there. In 1821, King D. João VI was forced to go back to Portugal, on account of the Porto Revolution. He left his son, D. Pedro, in Rio as regent. By that time, Brazil was not a regular colony any more, but a “united kingdom” to Portugal and Algarve. Patrimony and Cultural Identity | 101 The Brazilian Empire was founded on September 7, 1822, when the Portuguese prince, D. Pedro, declared Brazil an independent country that was also independent from Portugal. He became D. Pedro I, of Brazil, and called himself an emperor, not a king. Despite the name, Brazil was a regular monarchy and not an empire, as it did not have any colonies. When the Portuguese court arrived in 1808, the coffee crop was quickly developing, and had already reached the Paraíba Valley. The sugar culture was in decline, and coffee quickly became the most important exportation product, especially between the 1840s and 1860s. In the...