Entre águas e lembranças: a velha e a nova Guadalupe diante da construção da barragem de Boa Esperança (1960–1980)

Abstract

The article addressed the historical experience of individuals who lived through the displacement of the municipal seat of Guadalupe, in the state of Piauí, also known as “Velha Guadalupe”, due to the implementation of the Boa Esperança Hydroelectric Power Plant (UHE). At the time, the local community was forced to abandon their homes due to the construction of the UHE reservoir. The research aimed to analyze how the transformations caused by the construction of the UHE, especially by the reservoir lake, altered the social configuration, ways of life, and influenced the trajectories of Guadalupe’s residents. Bibliographic and documentary sources were used, including articles, dissertations, theses, reports from the Companhia Hidrelétrica do São Francisco (CHESF), the Memorial Porto Seguro, as well as interviews conducted with residents who experienced the historical context of the relocation of the municipal seat, a process also known as the transition between Velha and Nova Guadalupe. The oral history methodology was employed in the production of these sources, enabling an approach that considers the analysis of individual and collective memories. The theoretical framework was based on the concepts of memory, forgetting, and silence by Pollack (1989), considerations about the relationships between nature and space (GANDARA, 2009), historical experience (THOMPSON, 2012), territory (PACHECO, 1998), and territorialization (STEIL, 2000). We also used the approach of Mendes e Silva (2011) to understand the historical context of Guadalupe and that of Coutinho (2012) to analyze the social effects of large infrastructure projects. The analysis of these sources allowed us to observe how the relocation process profoundly affected community life, with repercussions on the memories, narratives, and stories about Velha Guadalupe.