Alcântara-Maranhão: from Tapuitapera to the Space Base

Abstract

Old village Tapuitapera and the second city in historical importance of the State of Maranhão, after the capital São Luís. Alcântara was the seat of the rural aristocracy agro-export of cotton. After the abolition of slaves and the change of cotton markets, the city collapsed and the 20th century became a dead city. Since its overthrow in 1948, the city of Alcântara has been the subject of several plans and diagnoses, Unesco and Iphan consultants pointed to the fragility of the ruined urban fabric with the disconnection of the city from regional and global networks and indicated that the preservation of the historic city was intrinsically linked to the recovery of its economy and social vitality lost in its long process of economic-social and urban decadence suffered since the late nineteenth century. After the tipping, in 1950 a prison in the city was implanted, the isolation generated by the exclusion and the problems due to the economic decadence and obsolescence almost took to the death, resilient and resistant it resisted and the global network was reconnected abruptly with the implementation of the Center of Alcântara (CLA) in 1980. Such an undertaking meant for this community a challenge and an opportunity. Opportunity to connect the city in the global network and challenge the confrontation between local and global, between urban and rural, with the community unprepared technically to fit into the project and the challenges of the space age.