Da colônia Ijuhy à capital nacional das etnias: a multiplicidade étnica e a produção de memórias como fatores de desenvolvimento regional

Abstract

This study asserts that in Ijuí, in the southern part of Brazil, there are three key elements that have demonstrated potential for regional development through tourism: ethnic multiplicity, the production of memories, and cultural heritage. This study addresses the relationships between these elements, their power in combination, and how they are employed in a deliberate way. The ethno-history of immigrants in the context of European migrations in the 19th century is evident within the territorial construction of this city. Social groups of different ethnicities experienced a new natural and cultural ecosystem as part of their territorial transposition westward. These groups were responsible for the insertion of different habits regarding language usage, commerce, agricultural production, craftmaking and architectural patterns that appear in construction. The multiculturality to which these immigrants were exposed "migrations and hybridizations" express a relationship with the formation of a regional identity and its use as a tourist attraction. The municipality of Ijuí was initially colonized by nineteen ethnic groups and displays marks of associativism, a characteristic resulting from this process. Therefore, the municipality brings together ethnic groups in the National Festival of Diversified Cultures - FENADI, currently in its 35th edition, which authorizes the area?s demarcation as a "Land of Diversified Cultures". This study applies an Oral History method and uses narrative interviews as a technique to analyze the actions of the ethnic groups that colonized Ijuí. Specifically, it identifies the processes by which they engaged with spatiality, emerging from the cultural borders established in the multiethnic interrelationships to which they were subjected since the beginning of colonization. As a result, the work asserts that there is a multiculturalism expressed through both materialities and immaterialities. For example, this multiculturalism is already recognized as cultural heritage by the State of Rio Grande do Sul and, since 2021, has had a federal seal; the municipality of Ijuí will soon be recognized as the National Capital of Ethnicities, as the city's integration of ethnic groups has proven to be a decisive factor for the development of local tourism. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]