Five decades ago, the residential complex of Campo Alegre was born, and with it the feeling experienced by at least 556 families. The normally rainy December has always been a month of water for the inhabitants of a small area in the north of Belo Horizonte, who now have another reason to be proud of their origins: Campo Alegre has won a book of memoirs. Written by poet and born artist Ricardo Aleixo, the work is part of BH. Everyone’s City” who values writing personal memoirs and the emotional choice of sources that are essential to storytelling.
No one better than a top resident will be able to collect memories of a place that is not always prestigious. Mineiro, Ricardo and his family were among the first to settle in what was then an apartment complex. It was a rainy December 19, and his father, Amrico, won his own house in a lottery run by the Department of Agriculture, where he worked. As he writes in the book, “this place looks much uglier than the day we arrived, a few months ago, to see the family’s first home.”
In an interview with Condition of the mines, Aleisho begins another session of memories, walking around the neighborhood. “The release of the book in December, shortly before the anniversary of the move, was a coincidence. It wasn’t a discussion. The problem is that I was late with the text, I had to move to Rio (de Janeiro) for four months to be able to write. Campo Alegre doesn’t let me write because it’s a place where I go out and meet neighbors that bring back more memories,” he says.
The first drafts of the story began in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2016 that writing began. “During the coup that toppled President Dilma, I realized the importance of a political attitude to the history of the area,” he said, referring to the PT impeachment approved by Congress. The place did not appear by chance. The housing policy of the period of military dictatorship in Brazil, the construction of the suites was based on the idea of small houses glued together with narrow streets and the intention to shelter the poor and unfortunate people from Minas Gerais.
As stated in the pages of the book, Campo Alegre was the second residential development built in the country, with the promise of exporting the concept to the Southern Cone, a region of the geographic triangle formed by Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the south. Brazil. “It has already determined that we have been left to our own luck. “These people who had nothing are fine here.” It becomes an exercise in citizenship as the population began to congregate with the goal of making the place as minimally livable as possible.”
With no water, electricity or direct sewerage, the people of Campo Alegre began to mobilize to improve the place. Ricardo’s mother, Dona Rees, was an important public figure. “If there are no sidewalks, she will go to the city hall doors. Is the school unstable? Let’s go to the door of the newspaper and make a claim,” he recalls. “The idea was to give something to people and run it in a slightly better situation than before. It did not point to the future, but guaranteed people’s commitment to totalitarian projects, gave an understanding that having something is better than having nothing. To write this story, Ricardo admits that it would have been impossible to become a scientist if his parents had not bought the house next door and with it stopped paying rent, investing money in his and his sister’s education. Fatima.
Structurally, the district remains the same. According to him, from the state school through the academy to the church, all elements have been preserved. The only change was in the area known as Chakara, where the bush became the neighboring district of Vila Clris. In addition, the previously unnamed streets of Campo Alegre were separated by the alphabet and some numbers. In 1981 alone, the then mayor of Belo Horizonte, Mauricio de Freitas Teixeira, gave names to 42 addresses.
For Ricardo, the essence of the district is not the same, but built by the inhabitants themselves. “I think we came up with the essence, it was not given to us as something natural. I like to repeat this figure: “556 families among the poor and disadvantaged throughout Minas Gerais, left to fend for themselves.” What are we doing? Join us. This is studied, for example, by the geographer Milton Santos, when he says that material scarcity is the engine of life for the poor. If I don’t have it and you don’t, let’s move on. This movement creates solidarity. If one manages to feed the children, and the other takes care of the children so that the latter goes to work, then when he returns, he shares what he has earned. This is the story of Campo Alegre and many poor places around the world. As a result, the area turned out to be good, contrary to all expectations. It wasn’t supposed to be nice, it’s narrow streets and houses glued together. But that’s what gave rise to mutual knowledge and the desire to grow together,” he defines.
On every block covered by the report, someone stopped Ricardo and greeted him. “I miss you” and “I heard about your neighbor book” are the main comments. Stop halfway to take another photo. Favorite place? “Here,” Ricardo replies, pointing to a bar on the right side of the street. “In addition to great service, they also have good beer,” he jokes.
Suddenly Denis, Ricardo’s waiter and friend, comes out from behind the bar with a big smile. “I can’t believe I see you here. I miss you so much, just being around you makes me happy,” says Denis Maicon. “I have known Ricardo for at least 30 years. Here he always eats pork rinds with lemon and penguin from the bar. He sits back there, quietly, no one interferes with him, ”he recalls.
The scene repeats the writer’s memories. The “essence” established by the inhabitants is a connection to history, which concerns not only the creation of geographic space, but also the emergence of historically hushed debates, such as the struggle of the black movement. Most of the first residents were not only poor, but also blacks who, in addition to the other problems they suffered from, also faced racism. Maintaining unity in the neighborhood was a political act.
“When I was a teenager, we didn’t say, ‘I live in Campo Alegre.’ We said it was in Planalto because everyone was ashamed, it was a very ugly place. Not today. Someone always shows up saying they live here. Campo Alegre is thrown back, out of the past, it no longer exists. When my work began to be recognized outside of Minas, I realized that I did not like BH, because it is a place where postal codes and surnames are valued. My strategy is to show that the suburbs are unmatched in terms of creativity. The creation of a book like Campo Alegre is a political matter. There is no need to compare the neighborhood with the richest regions, we have everything here,” concludes the poet Ricardo Aleixo.
.Today (12.10) the book “Campo Alegre” by Ricardo Aleixo will be presented in the bookstore Outlet do Livro.
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