Mito e (re)invenção da “Manchester Mineira”: etnografia de um passeio “histórico-cultural” na cidade de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

In this work, that consists of a case study, having as urban scene and stage the mythical “Manchester Mineira” (heading conferred to the city of Juiz de Fora, in reason of its glorious industrial past), I look for to emphasize and to analyze the relation between myth and cultural tourism, from the referring anthropological theory to the first one, placed at risk in practical (touristic and ethnographic) concerning to as. My insertion, as participant, in constant “the historical-cultural” stroll of the Project “To live Juiz de Fora – discover this city”, that it is promoted by the City hall of this city, allowed me to observe - “of close and of inside” - as the myth operates there as mediating symbolic of the dialogue established between an objective and official history, told by means of the disclosed patrimony, and subjective histories of the “tourist-natives”, that they revitalize (symbolically) this patrimony with tourist practical its. It is treated, therefore, of a ethnography of a stroll of end of week (or of “Sunday”), of one to make tourism (cultural) in the proper city where if it lives, not of a form independent and isolated, but collective and mediated by agents of the State in its municipal sphere. In this case, the displacement in the space implies a displacement in the time, in the direction of the construction of a collective memory. Revitalized in this practical of revitalization of the historical-cultural heritage of the city, the myth supplies to these “tourist-natives” the symbols to be thought as members of a ampler community about the space and in the time, thus fomenting a feeling of belongs to the city. I conclude affirming that this form to make tourism is also a form of (re)inventing traditions, cultures, histories and cities.