Louzeiro: a invenção de uma mata. 1960 - 2013. Campina Grande: espaço, paisagem e território.

Abstract

This research has as a proposal to understand how the Louzeiro, in the 1960´s a site in Campina Grande-Paraíba, acquires a status of protected forest in 1990, and later, in 2013,it is chosen to shelter the Botanical Garden of Campina Grande. Which transformations occurred during the imagetic-discursive construction of this space and in the actions of its inhabitants and visitors throughout this period. Moreover, what were the reasons for a green spot of 60 acres, located 10 minutes from downtown, to turn invisible, being unknown by the majority of the populatio. For that, we intended to perceive how the landscapes and the identity of the “Campinenses” were imageticdiscursively built, dialoging with the emerging speeches and the willfulness related to its appropriation. The sources used were mainly the current legislation throughout this research, thematic interviews, various maps, fauna and flora inventory, collection from “Jornal da Paraíba” and from the “jusnavigandi”. Furthermore, it was used videos and pictures from the internet, symbols of Campina Grande, specially the flag, coat of arms, anthem; the book “História de Campina Grande” of Elpídio de Almeida and documents provided by the Departments of Culture, Environment and Planning of the city. We verified that the emergency of the environmental speech and the legislation fed by it after 1970, brought up the need for the preservation of the fresh water fountains located in the Louzeiro, and because of that, the transformation into a protection zone was necessary. However, despite being an ecotone, the area has as its main landscape the “Caatinga”. This white jungle was opposite to all the imagetic construction of nature fed by the media and also to the construction of progress, of a city predestined to success, fact that was illustrated by the “natural elements”, done about Campina Grande in the time of its hundredth anniversary in 1964. Along with these speeches, we add the negative construction of the “Caatinga” which has been done since the beginning of the 20th century, making it possible to understand the invisibility of the Louzeiro. This invisibility was aggravated by the use of the landscape as a scenic element, as something to beautify the city, aspect that has been fed by the media with rain forest images, with tall trees and evergreen and dense tops. The historicization of the concepts about nature that dialoged with the work was of great importance for the understanding of what the community awaited with the construction of the city´s landscape.