Gentrification and resistance in Salvador, Brazil

Gentrification and Resistance in Salvador, Brazil

The historic center of Salvador was gradually abandoned by the elites, beginning as far back as the 19th century. In the 1970s and 1980s, the government’s administrative activities moved to a new location and without the economic elite and the middle class, only the poor remained. But since 1980, a discourse in support of revitalization of the historic center became stronger. The interventions that took place based on this logic provoked a decrease in the low income population. In 1970, the resident population represented 12% of all residents of the city, or 120,800 people. Thirty years later, only 2.8% of the city’s population is left, most of them (64%) poor and black.

This paper analyzes the renovation of Salvador’s historic center and a bit of the city’s memory. It is divided in three parts. In the first we conduct a brief review of theoretical references about historic heritage preservation and the concepts found in the pertinent legislation. In the second part we look at the renewal of Salvador’s historic center. We then analyze the denial of the local population in the renewal process, highlighting the changes that took place in the 7th step of the intervention that sought to include the resident population in the region. We also look at the components that are responsible for these changes.

Finally, we offer some considerations about the renewal process presented through a discourse that promoted improved urban conditions for residents and users of the historic center, to stimulate the diversity of occupation and the complementarity of uses and functions, to encourage and promote renewal of the historic heritage and the repopulation of the central area, among others. Nevertheless, in practice, the proposals presented are not in keeping with the federal City Law.