ABSTRACT
In 2019, Brazil experienced one of the most devastating socio-environmental disasters and the largest work accident in the country’s history: the rupture of a dam holding mineral extraction tailings owned by the multinational Vale S.A., in the city of Brumadinho, in Minas Gerais state. Millions of tons of toxic sludge buried hundreds of workers and residents, while leaving a trail of destruction in surrounding areas. A year later, while the victims were still fighting for the right to reparation, the construction of the “Brumadinho Memorial” was announced, in reference to the catastrophic event. According to the company, which treats the construction of the memorial as part of the reparative policy, the memorial should favour the future political recognition of the area as an “emotional memory site”. Nonetheless, the new place of memory avoids addressing the long history of social manifestations and struggles for rights of those affected by dams and mining companies active in Minas Gerais, where some of the first territories to be explored in Brazil are located, some 300 years ago. In this chapter, beginning with this emblematic case, we reflect on the relationships between landscape, heritage, and memory.
