Cláudio Honorato

But it was very interesting that in February – I don’t forget that date, because at the same moment I received a call from a Globo columnist, and this Globo columnist was asking me about these issues; at the same time the finding was being made, so the press was following this issue closely… And then at that moment, Eduardo Paes makes a statement, which will preserve that there – although full of stereotypes, saying that there would be our Roman ruins, that whole thing – but what happened, that this administration was favorable. They paralyzed, opened space for research, opened space for the black movement, for civil society institutions. Of course, of course, it could even be from other viewpoints than the view of the black community, of the people of the black movement, of the African-based institutions, but that was very favorable – and I really like the phrase that Milton Guran used at the time: “it was a conspiracy of good”. A conspiracy of good, in which all people, regardless of religion or political ideology, agreed that Cais do Valongo deserved to be a World Heritage Site, that was fantastic. And already at that moment, the Valongo Charter was written, which called not only to guarantee the conservation of that space, for the construction of a Diaspora memorial there in that place, which would be at Docas Pedro II – which has not yet come out because of reasons that we know very well what happened since then. Another administration in the city hall, changes in the Presidency of the Republic, tried to end culture by decree – but culture is not ended by decree; because culture is not a monument, culture is made of flesh and blood, it has people… So, Valongo is what it is because the people who lived there, the people who stayed there, kept that story alive in their memories and were able to tell us about it, even at the time the file was being built.