Pé de juá”: fenômenos urbanos, fronteiras e conflitos na Morada da Lua, Barreiras-BA

Abstract

This study examines the urban development of the Morada da Lua neighborhood in Barreiras, Bahia, from 1980 to 2019, through the lens of political and social conflicts. It emphasizes the lived experiences, representations, and agency of local residents in shaping material, symbolic, and ethno-racial boundaries and territories. The analysis is grounded in the theoretical and methodological frameworks of Urban History, particularly the works of Michel de Certeau and Sandra Pesavento, which guide the interpretation of spatial appropriation and meaning-making processes in the neighborhood’s formation and consolidation. The research draws on a range of sources, including archival documents, newspapers, and a community-based oral history archive developed during the study, to explore the narratives surrounding space and place. Initially occupied under a discourse of “progress” — coordinated by both public and private sectors—the area was later redefined by residents through their own social cartographies. A key example is the “Pé de Juá,” which emerged as a symbolic landmark of sociability and territorial demarcation. Between 1995 and 2019, the neighborhood underwent transformations marked by the silencing of social dynamics that once defined it. Nonetheless, these sociabilities persisted, giving rise to new forms of interaction and spatial organization, such as the division into “Morada da Lua de Cima” and “Morada da Lua de Baixo,” officially recognized by local authorities in 2019, amidst the ongoing consolidation of a progress-driven urban model.