The Mobiliza Saracura Vai-Vai movement filed a lawsuit this week asking for the guarantee of preservation in the archaeological site found in the works of Station 14 Bis, in the central region of São Paulo, which will integrate the future Line 6 Orange of the Metro. According to the articulation, which brings together about 150 collectives and civil society organizations, the works put at risk possible vestiges of Quilombo Saracura, a community formed by people who were enslaved where the Bixiga neighborhood is currently located. The risks became even more evident, according to the movement, after the rains last Tuesday (7), when a flood broke the containment barriers and invaded the construction site. “The fear is that the waters of the Saracura River, blocked under Avenida 9 de Julho and the construction site, will carry away pieces of archaeological interest”, emphasizes the movement’s note. The report by Lasca Arqueologia, a company contracted by the Linha Uni concessionaire to assess the site, says that traces of occupation from the first half of the 20th century were found. “Quadrilátero Negro”, due to the occupation of people descended from the former quilombo. Records in newspapers at the time report that the houses followed the path of the stream, which was later channeled, and that animals were raised loose. It was this community that founded, in 1930, one of the most important and traditional samba schools in the city of São Paulo, Vai-Vai, with origins in a carnival cordon that used to go through the streets of the neighborhood. In 2021, the samba school left its headquarters in the region, which was demolished to make way for works on the future subway station. According to the archaeological report, despite the fact that pieces from the Quilombo era have not yet been located, the rescue work continues in parallel with the excavations and works for the construction of the station. “A polygon was delimited within the area of the Saracura site, where the archaeological rescue activities will be concentrated, following the construction company’s safety protocols and in line with the work schedule, thus guaranteeing the safeguarding of the archaeological context without jeopardizing the installation of the station ”, emphasizes the document. Black resistance The coordinator of the Right to Anti-Racist Cities at the Peregum Black Reference Institute, Gisele Brito, points out, however, that the site has an important historical value as it is a point of black resistance in the capital of São Paulo and that part of it is being erased. “These traces will speak more about this black history in Bixiga and in the city. We have no doubts that what is found there are vestiges of this black permanence, of this resistance, even if they are not quilombola artifacts”, she emphasizes. What is still lacking, in her assessment, is that the work be carried out taking into account the specificities of Afro-Brazilian culture. As an example, Brito mentions some shells that were found in archaeological excavations. “These shells at first were thought of only as a material discarded from the landfill. Only a person who doesn’t think about the role of a whelk in African rituals will think that way. Vai-Vai was sitting on a trident, it wasn’t there by chance”, she adds. The specialist considers that the movement in defense of the archaeological site is not against the expansion of public transport in the region. “We are not against the subway, although it did not need to remove the Vai-Vai. This is a strategy for whitening the territory”, she says about the fact that the work overlapped the headquarters that had been occupied by the association for decades. “We want it to be done within the law and within methodologies and thoughts that take into account the black presence there”, she adds. The Agência Brasil report contacted the Linha Uni concessionaire and is awaiting a response.
Agência Brasil
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