Cultural heritage, festival and identity construction: an analises of the certification process pertaining to "Comunidade do Barranco de São Benedito" (2010-2016)
Festival - Black cultural heritage - Quilombo certification - Comunidade do Barranco de São Benedito - quilombo identity.
In this research, we aim to investigate the certification process of urban “Quilombo Barranco de São Benedito", located at Praça 14 de Janeiro, in the city of Manaus, Amazon, Brazil. The community of this Quilombo was formed due to a migration of Black people, amongst whom were former slaves that moved from the city of Alcântara, in the State of Maranhão, to Amazon, at the end of the nineteenth (XIX) century. With the move, the black community brought with themselves their cultural and religious manifestations. Saint Benedict's festival being the first to be celebrated by them in Manaus. This festival, celebrating the black Saint, has been passed down from generation to generation amongst the families that came from Maran hã ;o to their descendents and was a deciding factor to materialize the certification of said festival by the Palmares Cultural Foundation ("Fundação Cultural Palmares" - FCP) in the year of 2014. During this process, a mobilization of black cultural heritage happened, that allowed legitimization of Quilombo identity, openning the path for "Quilombo do Barranco" being recognized as intangible cultural heritage in Amazon in the year 2015. Having that as a start point, we make a study of the Black Saint's festival, as well as the quilombo community certification through newspapers "A crítica" and "Amazonas em tempo", whilst incorporating the ethnographies and social cartographies made about the black community, with official documents and family records to suplement.