The gray wall and the majestic entrance: the Carandiru Penitentiary Complex’s heritage process

Abstract:

This study analyzes the Carandiru Penitentiary Complex’s patrimonialization and its contradictions: on the one hand, the architectural marks erasure and, on the other hand, the recognition of what was considered a vestige of its history as the city of São Paulo’s (SP/Brazil) cultural heritage. First we dissected the listing process, opened in 1997, and followed its unfoldings until its definitive approval in 2020. In the second part, we problematize the specificities, limits, poten­t­ialities, and fissures of an uncomfortable memories neutralization work, which determines what can be said and remembered regarding Carandiru and the massacre that occurred there. The temporal scope is the present time, tracing intelligibility to a history still unstable and, in many moments, unsubordinated to assertive and determining narratives.

Keywords:
Carandiru; Massacre; Prison heritage; Prisons; Current time history