New Expressions of Resistance and Community Organization in Neighborhood Contexts.

This article analyzes the experience of association of residents (Salve Santa Tereza) of an old neighborhood (Santa Tereza) in the city of Belo Horizonte. This association has been acting for the protection of the neighborhood against the opposing forces, private and public. The interests of the real estate market, together with the permissiveness of the state, have radically transformed the landscape of the capital of the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil). The city, once placid and horizontal, is now populated with skyscrapers. The group opposes the mercantile attempts of the city's current administration, which have abandoned the participatory forms of public management for the adoption of business management. Among the activities of this movement, the article will address two practices currently under way: the horizontal assemblies that take place in the central square of the neighborhood on Mondays to discuss matters of interest to the neighborhood and the movement to defend a neighborhood market (Mercado Vivo). The city government closed the old market with the intention of offering it to the private initiative and for which the movement demands a participative management with local producers and artisans. It will also address the coexistence in the movement of different generations, as well as the resistance it arouses in other neighborhood groups with different visions and interests. The assemblies are held in function of diverse themes that interest the neighborhood. The mobilization around the Market, happens at different times and due to the progress of negotiations with the city or the mobilization and awareness of the residents. Before these two experiences, the article will contemplate the protection of the neighborhood as a city's heritage in 2016, a result of the local mobilization. This work is part of an ongoing research project since 2016.