“Suburbia awakens!” : from the fragmented city to the suburban belle époque of Rio in the spectrum of the urban revolution (1902-1922)

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the representations of the so-called Belle Époque developed in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. The illustrated magazines produced during the period 1902 and 1922 will be used as main sources, especially suburban magazines. It will also be discussed the construction of a perspective that allows us to construct the idea of ​​a "fragmented city", from the perspective of the hegemonic process developed around the idea of ​​the "Wonderful City", this being the subjective league of Rio identity that in the suburbs of the city found specific land that developed its perception of the city, based on local needs and mobilization. Even in the face of the desire to replicate in distant suburban neighborhoods what was seen and heard about the modernization of the then city, with its promenades and the great Avenida Central - later, Rio Branco -; its new fashion stores; its pedagogy of customs and everything else, it is important for us in this proposal to show that there was a suburban belle époque, a search for the ideal of the period in terms of being modern. Within these fragments of the city spread over spaces that transition between rural and urban, linked by the hegemonic idea of ​​the “Wonderful City”, we will walk among incessant complaints about the need for improvements, improvements and political criticism, as well as affection for public institutions that look after the suburbs and their social and cultural expressions, with their different particularities and their way of life that sought to awaken under the transformative progress of material realities.