A Feira e a cidade: espaço urbano, memória e sociabilidades da feira livre de Dourados (1948-2016)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the Street Fair of Dourados, that was created in 1948 as a strategy to supply the residents of the city, to commercialize the produce of the farmers of the National Agriculture Colony of Dourados (CAND) and the Municipal Agriculture Colony of Dourados (CMD), it was also used as an strategy for collecting taxes for the city. The installation of the colonies, the different migration processes and the ideas of progress and modernity about Dourados are related and favored the project to create the street fair. Over the decades, this fair was installed in several places in the city, having remained for the longest (36 years) on Cuiabá street. The objective of the thesis was to present and analyze the Street Fair of Dourados and its relationship with the city. The analyzed aspects permeated the themes: its origin in the historical context of the agricultural colonies; the spaces occupied in the city in face of the urban planning actions of the different municipal public administrations; the fair as a cultural heritage of the municipality and, finally, the sociability diversity present in this multicultural scenario. Parallelly, the perceptions of the different social subjects linked to the fair are presented and problematized in the perspectives of power relations; in the social practices among market vendors, consumers and surrounding residents; in the multiculturalism present in the physical and symbolic environment of the street and in the countless changes through the decades – at the fair and in the city. Among the conclusions, it was possible to perceive the role of the local press that positioned itself at the problems presented, sometimes praising, sometimes demanding from the public administrations, measures of organization, supervision and structural adequacy of the fair. In addition, the sources showed that the elements of progress and modernity were used, recurrently, to support the proposals to change the location of the fair. Regarding patrimonialization, it was possible to verify the inconsistencies and inadequacies related to the process to make it a Heritage Site as a protective instrument, also, the weaknesses of the patrimonial policy applied in Dourados. The fair was also analyzed and problematized as a place for sociability and popular actions in various diverse aspects: it was used and instrumentalized politically, made possible as a solidary and legitimated citizen environment, within the scope of freedom of expression. Given the above, it is possible to assure that the history of the Stree Fair of Dourados gets confused, complements and represents, to some extent, part of the history of Dourados. As a source for this research it was used; official documents from several public institutions, local press sources, mainly represented by the newspapers O Progresso, O Douradense and folha de dourados interviews and memorial sources.