Drawing Memories: Intersections Between the Sites of Memory and the Memories of Places

Abstract

This paper explores the relationships between people, place and memory and involves discussing the links between the “sites of memory” and the “convergence-divergence zone¨, which is bound up with the processes of perception and evocation/recognition of fleeting memories, as experienced by the residents of the central district of the town of Campinas - Sao Paulo - Brazil. A field research was carried out with a sample of 266 participants from the central area of this town, who agreed to take part in interviews and produce drawings on the basis of which it was possible to identify places of memory. These places were appropriated and preserved through shared feelings, which distinguished them from others, and the memory of these places was undertaken there. The results show the close ties between the individual, the urban/architectural space created and the recognition of the value of the constructed urban identity that is based on the memory that the participants had of their city, cultural heritage, symbolic reference points and representations. These representations underpin the discussions about the way cultural heritage and memory are endowed with legitimacy and preserved in the present.