Ribeira do Bodocongó (1749-1933): relicário urbano ambiental da cidade de Campina Grande.

Abstract

“Ribeira do Bodocongó” deals with the general history of human occupation on the Bodocongó riverside, and its inseparable relationship and strong influence on Campina Grande, in Paraíba. We will cover almost two centuries in this panoramic history, starting from the context of the expansion of colonization in the interior of Paraíba and reaching the industrialization and urbanization around the Bodocongó dam. Throughout the chapters that follow, we will learn who the real owners of these lands were. We will travel along the paths and roads used by settlers and drovers in the process of occupation of the interior of Paraíba. We will get to know some of the sites and farms that settled on this river and its surroundings, with emphasis on the Bodocongó Farm and the lands to the west of Campina Grande. We will discover how drought evacuees were able to build a dam that altered the natural landscape, the dynamics of urban growth and a set of socioeconomic relationships existing in the city. We will be introduced to the pioneer residents and workers of the Bodocongó neighborhood. At the end of this epistemological path, we will have understood why the Bodocongó riverside can be considered as an urban and environmental reliquary for Campina Grande.