From Ruins to Heritage of Humanity: Interfaces between Preservationist and Tourism Policies in São Miguel das Missões (RS)

Resumo

This paper aims to discuss the relations established between heritage and tourism policies in the city of São Miguel das Missões, in northwestern Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil. São Miguel developed on the sidelines of the 20th century, in the surroundings of the architectural remains of the Jesuit-Guarani village of São Miguel Arcanjo – ruins dating back to the 17th century and recognised as a World Heritage site in 1983. In the city, heritage policies were introduced since the decade of 1920, with Rio Grande do Sul government taking preservation actions, and also in the 1930s, with the National Department for Historical and National Artistic Heritage working within nationalist political contexts. Broadening the understanding on cultural heritage influenced the heritage policies adopted in the region. It resulted both in the recognition of the site as intangible Brazilian heritage, due to its ancestral importance to M'byá-Guarani indigenous groups, and in the development of the Project for the Enhancement of the Cultural Landscape of Missões National Park, bringing an integrative notion of cultural landscape to the framework of heritage policies. Such policies would also outline initiatives in favor of tourism. In this regard, the Missões ruins became the main attraction not only because of the materiality of its reductions (considering its historical and architectural aspects), but also because of the tourist and imaginary senses recreated in actions like the show Som e Luz (Sound and Light) and other recent projects intended to be discussed in this paper.