O sertão que virou “mar” : memória, cultura e identidade no Projeto de irrigação Jusante, Glória - BA (1988 - 2021)

Abstract

In 1976, based on the capitalist logic of promoting modernization and development in Brazil, the construction of the Luiz Gonzaga Hydroelectric Plant (UHLG) – previously called Itaparica - began in the Northeast, still during the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), in the Submédio São Francisco region, located in the municipality of Petrolândia - PE. Under the responsibility of the São Francisco Hydroelectric Power Company (CHESF), it was only completed in mid1988, when the country was already living in a democracy again. This undertaking led to a compulsory resettlement process that culminated with the dispossession and re-possession of thousands of rural workers between the states of Pernambuco and Bahia. It was through the observation of that historical fact and grounded on the field of a Social History of Culture that I proposed to dive into the memories of that hinterland that turned into sea. By means of the necessary clippings to the historian's craft, I aimed to analyze in which way the mandatory resettlement of the inhabitants of the former settlement Malhada do Sal to Agrovila 06 of the Jusante Irrigation Project, Glória - BA, impacted on the cultural practices of land cultivation, in the relationship with the São Francisco River, in the practices of religious worship, and what are the implications of this process over their identities, while obeying a temporal cut corresponding to the years from 1988 to 2021. Methodologically, in order to weave a history seen from below, I made use of Oral History as a primary source, followed by documentary analysis, audiovisual reports, photographs, speeches, and pronouncements. As for the theoretical framework, among others, I operationalized the concepts of conservative modernization, culture/customs, negotiation and conflict, memory and identity. Therefore, the sources available revealed that conservative modernization served as the basis for the agroindustrialization of the Submédio São Francisco; that there is a dispute between the State and the Rural Workers Union for the memories of the resettlement process; and that the referred cultural practices suffered modifications over time, and in a strategic attempt to resist the new life model imposed by the resettlement, the interviewed subjects assumed new roles of identities.