Caraíba and Serra do Navio: the construction of the brazilian city

Abstract

In the American continent, as it happens in paradise, everything has to be authentic in order to testify and guarantee its grace, and mark this celebrated difference and pureness. The American city cannot be related to what is trivial and adapted, since the city must be composed of this copious nature and delightful geography. However, the expectation of capturing such character is depraved by the extensive copy of cities, where models proliferate and dominate, and where identity, recognition and sense are not able to contribute. Behind the revelation of this particular figure hides a massive intellectual effort with unequal attempts revealing, when the results are revisited in the future, explanations detached from the prior argument of its defenders and critics:  in one hand, the realist or regional, attached to the tradition and culture, which is more artificial and unstable; in the other hand, the modern and international alternative, accused of foreignness by the dubious people, reveals unsuspected consequences and vigour. This is due perhaps because the popular and spontaneous end up succumbing to the erudite intentions, and also because the universal is always independent, pertinent and new.