The Loss of Cultural Heritage as a Result of the Greatest Ongoing Environmental Disaster in the World

the case of subsidence of neighborhoods in Maceio

Abstract

One large part of the central area of ​​the municipality of Maceió, the capital of Alagoas, which corresponds to five neighborhoods, was affected by a phenomenon that in geology is called "subsidence", which consists of the abrupt sinking of the surface of the earth's, with little or no horizontal movement, due to the exploitation of rock salt, raw material for the manufacture of plastics, PVC and caustic soda. Due to the imminent risk, the population of four neighborhoods has been removed, leaving more than 15,000 residences in the neighborhoods of Pinheiro, Mutange, Bom Parto and Bebedouro (this last one, a Special Area of ​​Rigid Preservation), beyond the commerces and services that the neighborhoods housed. Three of the now phantom neighborhoods are situated close to Laguna Mundaú and house edifications that reassembled to the beginnings of Maceió's urbanization. In the two neighborhoods which stay in the upper part, Pinheiro and now also part of the Farol, are where the concentration of the few copies of modernist architecture still exists in Maceió. But the loss of cultural references goes beyond the built heritage that can disappear through subsidence or, as it is already been happening, through abandonment. They include the so-called “intangible heritage”, with the weakening of local traditions, popular merrymaking such as quadrilha and coco de roda groups, which existence is exclusively related to the relationship with the territoriality and geographical proximity of the players, since the groups were formed by relatives and neighbors, who were relocated far from each other, making the continuation of traditions unfeasible. This “diaspora” can cause the condemnation of traditions that always were very present in the Alagoas culture, and are also they are the result of resistance from groups descended from enslaved Africans. About the possibility of loss and necessary actions to avoid the disappearance of the material and immaterial patrimony of the affected neighborhoods, we will deal with this article.