Arquitetura do êxodo: patrimonialização associada às secas no Ceará (1877-1932)

Abstract

This dissertation investigated architectural production, whether temporary or permanent, built with the justification of assistance and charity for the displaced people during the droughts in Ceará between 1877 and 1932. Its objective was to present the dynamics of these places in the historical and urban context in which they were inserted and to analyze the discourses and interests that justified the architectural production in response to the displacement of people from the hinterland. The hypothesis was based on the premise that the institutionalization of the state, linked to this spatial configuration—whether ephemeral or permanent—made use of policies of extermination and isolation of the so-called "flagelados" of the drought, a poor and mixed-race population considered by the authorities to be a threat to the order and lifestyle of the urban elites. The "retirantes" (drought refugees), as the displaced people from the drought were identified, who were forced to leave the hinterland and move towards urban centers with promises of public aid, were subjected to forced labor and migration, deprivation of freedom, and poor living conditions in the shelters built after the Great Drought of 1877-79; in the camps for drought relief works; in the "Currais do Governo" (Government Corrals), as the concentration camps were known, built from 1915 onwards; and in the asylum spaces for orphans, women, the poor, and those considered insane survivors of the long drought periods. The research is exploratory and qualitative, using the former Orphanological Colony Christina as a case study