Entre ruas e avenidas : memória e representações sociais do período militar (1964-1985) em Belo Horizonte/MG

Abstract

In this study, we consider the psychosocial aspect of memory that is a social construct in which recovering, silence, and oblivion are products of a web in which past, present, and future are articulated. Regarding the psychosocial approach of memory, this study focused on the historical construction of Brazilian Military Dictatorship memory (1964 -1985) which was analyzed considering the Transitional Justice which sought to remember, the truth and justice. We considered the recommendations of official documents, such as the final report of the National Truth Commission which highlights the symbolic reparation acts to those who suffered political deaths and disappearances in Brazil. The action of naming public spaces was analyzed as symbolic acts in the municipality of Belo Horizonte - MG which pay tributes for those political militants. Thus, we sought to understand how the residents construct their historical memory and their social representations of the past military government. Using mixed methods for data collection and analysis, the qualitative and quantitative methodological design was divided into four stages:1)documentary research in which we identify public places that are objects of homage and organizing, based on content analysis, information about these places and the militants honored; 2) The mapping of the honored places, through digital cartography using the software ArcGIS, QGIS and Google Earth for the creation of a static map with 200 points identified in the survey, and an interactive map, including the locations where we developed the field research; 3) A Semi-structured interview with the former city councilor Betinho Duarte, author of the law project “Rua Viva”, that named hundreds public places in BH, honoring political activist who opposed the military dictatorship in Brazil. We established categories involving the legislative activity and the urban toponomy, the relationship between the project and the former city counselor's activism history through content analysis, and finally, the perspective of future projects 4) Field research in 20 public places (streets, squares, avenues, and alley), in the 09 regional offices of BH, with 150 respondents of young, adult and elderly age, in which we applied a single instrument, consisting of a mixed questionnaire and Word Free Association Test (WFAT). Data were analyzed through basic statistics such as frequency of responses and content analysis in the case of opened questions using categories and general themes. The memory evocations were analyzed through prototypical analysis using the software IRaMuTeQ. It was done to identify the central and peripheral structure of a possible social representation in which the central core of the "military period" is composed of elements contrasting feelings of respect, order, safety, and those indicating a dictatorship that caused tortures, deaths, and lack of freedom. In the investigated context, the population's lack of knowledge about the tributes paid in public places does not seem to stem only from the lack of information on the situation of the military period in Brazil, but the complex relationship between memory, silence and forgetting, products of intergroup disputes for the preservation of memory versions, which contributes to the protection of the groups' social identity.