Quando a casa vira parque: explorando memórias de lugar através de histórias de vida de idosos residentes na Serra de Piabas – Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca/RJ

Abstract

In this PhD research, my main objective is to understand the multiple relationships established between memory and place through the interpretation of life stories narrated by elderly residents of Serra de Piabas, a place situated within the boundaries of the Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca (PEPB). This fully protected conservation unit encompasses a significant portion of the Maciço da Pedra Branca in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro. I am verifying how the spatial transformations that occurred in the locality throughout the 20th century, especially the advance of typically urban forms of occupation and the creation of the PEPB, have acted in the reconfiguration of the relationships within the place, taking the memories evoked in the life stories narrated by the elderly as a central element in the construction of senses of place. From a methodological-analytical point of view, I consider life stories as a source for investigating past experiences that deal not only with narratives situated in historical time but also with the retrieval of memory embedded in lived places. This aspect reveals the Geographicity of these subjects and the construction of their identities, which are built and communicated in this inseparable relationship with the place. The transition of Serra de Piabas into the PEPB has promoted ruptures with the local forms of inhabitation, leading to a process of re-elaboration of identities based on the relationship with the place, as well as the identities of the place itself. Moreover, expressing an affective dimension, the notions of memory and place are activated in the discourses that emerge from their narratives to justify their right to remain at the PEPB. In this sense, these subjects mobilised memory and place as political tools, revealing everyday strategies of resistance grounded in the pursuit of concealment and invisibility in the face of management agencies as the basis of the relationships constructed in and with the place. Therefore, I defend the thesis of constructing a profound sense of rootedness and attachment to the place, founded on the evocation of memories that articulate past experiences as a political-affective strategy in the constant negotiation of these subjects regarding their right to remain and exist in the park.