Fazendinha Dona Izabel: gestão cultural e patrimônio em comunidades negras e periféricas

Fazendinha Dona Izabel is located in Barragem Santa Lúcia, Belo Horizonte-MG (Brazil). It was recognized as city´s Cultural Heritage in 1992, at the request of residents. By that act, the edification became a symbol of an unprecedented initiative until then: the recognition of a property located in a favela community as a city heritage. Built between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the property is a testimony-document of the experiences of African people and their descendants, mostly free, who inscribed their experiences in those lands well before 1888 (Slavery Abolition in Brazil). It also testifies to the formation of that community, from the arrival of black families who, in the Post-Abolition period – especially in the advent of the construction of the Nova Capital (later named Belo Horizonte) –, migrated from the interior of the state of Minas Gerais and from other regions of the country. Based on the analysis of patrimonialization process documents and the recent restoration of the building located in one of the first favelas in the capital of Minas Gerais, the article proposes for discussion the relationship between the community and government powers involved in promoting public memory policies, with attention to the specificity of the epistemological and heritage management challenges configured from black people experiences in the territory.