On roads and subjects: tourism and citizenship in a traditional community of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The article discusses the possibilities of development, by means of the tourism, in Milho Verde community, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A remaining of the exploration of precious minerals in the region of Diamantina, the small locality was inserted in the contemporary touristic demand bringing traditional structures - social, cultural and economic - largely unaltered, preserved by the depression of the economic activity that affected all the Jequitinhonha Valley after the decline of the mining activity. Already confronted to a series of ecological, cultural and urbanistic impacts related to the touristic demand, the community, with the informal enterprises in tourism established by the population, is now being incorporated to an enlarged and intensified context of external requires, determined by the implementation of planned proposals of touristic activity - the Prodetur NE II and the route of historical, cultural and ecological attractions Estrada Real ("Royal Road"). Appraising the necessary maintenance of communitarian and ecological conditions that perpetuates the touristic attractiveness, the article evaluates the importance of the local sociopolitical autonomy as an essential condition to the consecution of a development proposal.