A portrait of the end of de century: man, land and work in Nova Ponte - MG, and the problem of displacementstradition?

Abstract

This article consists of a contribution for the understanding of what was meant by Nova Ponte, with its peculiarities, in the second half of the XX century and, mainly, how the town looked like when the barrage project was materialized, destroying the whole old city. The reality described here represented the effects of the transformations occurring in the Brazilian countryside, specifically in the Cerrado [Savannah] areas. This little town of the Alto Paranaíba region presented the propitious conditions for the implementation of the national project for the reasonable good use of the Cerrado areas: availability of covered area with that kind of vegetation and a low-income community of inhabitants ready to be part of a new work relationship imposed by that occupation form, thought as being reasonable and represented by the toiler. Many of the described experiences were based on our master’s degree dissertation, defended at São Paulo University (USP), under the title: Destruction and Symbolic Reconstruction in Modernization Times.