The Latin America Memorial () is a cultural, political and leisure complex, inaugurated on March 18, 1989, in São Paulo, Brazil. The architectural setting, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is a monument to the cultural, political, social and economic integration of Latin America, spanning an area of . Its cultural project was developed by Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro. It is a public foundation, financially and administratively autonomous, maintained by the state government.
The architectural complex consists of several buildings arranged around two squares, with a total built area of . It comprises: Salão de Atos Tiradentes (Tiradentes "hall of acts"), the Victor Civita Latin American Library, the Brazilian Center of Latin American Studies, the Marta Traba Gallery of Latin American Art, the Pavilhão da Criatividade ("creativity pavilion") and the Símon Bolívar Auditorium. In the main square (Praça Cívica), there is a large concrete sculpture, also designed by Oscar Niemeyer, representing an open hand in vertical position, with the map of Latin America painted in red. It's a symbol of Latin America's past of oppression and its battles for freedom, with the red map as a reminder of the blood from the sacrifices that were made.
The Memorial has a permanent collection of works of art, on display in indoor and outdoor areas, as well as a large assemblage of Latin American folk art, housed in the Pavilhão da Criatividade. The library comprises 30,000 titles, besides music and departments. The Memorial promotes exhibitions, conferences, debates, video sessions, theater, dance and music performances. It also has a research center specializing in Latin American issues and keeps an active bibliographic production.Bravo! Guia de Cultura, 2005, p. 138. From 1989 to 2007, the Memorial also served as a host to the Latin American Parliament (currently located in Panama City).
History The idea of creating an institution devoted to improving Latin American political, social, economic and cultural relations in São Paulo dates back to the André Franco Montoro government, which took place in the mid-1980s, in a cultural context defined by democratic advances across the continent and by a greater alignment of interests between Brazil and other Latin American countries, notably Argentina. In 1985, Brazil and Argentina signed the in 1985, the founding agreement for the future emergence of Mercosur. During his term in the São Paulo state government, Franco Montoro created the Latin American Institute (ILAM) as an effort to expand cultural exchange among the countries of the region. ILAM would organize a bibliographic collection of around 10,000 items, in addition to photographs, videos and other materials related to Latin American culture, which would later serve as the primary collection for the Memorial's library.
However, the actual construction of the Memorial and the conception of its cultural program would only begin during the Orestes Quércia government, who intended to build in São Paulo "the most important cultural center of the Latin American continent".Oscar Niemeyer 100 anos. (in Portuguese) Nossa América, 2007, no. 25, p. 30. The architect Oscar Niemeyer was then commissioned by Quércia to design a monumental complex, to be built on a public site of around in the Barra Funda neighborhood.Oscar Niemeyer 100 anos. (in Portuguese) Nossa América, 2007, no. 25, p. 7. Niemeyer designed a complex made up of six buildings spread across two plazas joined by a walkway: the library, the Salão de Atos, the restaurant (now the Marta Traba Gallery), the Creativity Pavilion, the auditorium and the study center. The headquarters building of the Latin American Parliament was added later on. The architect envisioned the complex as an "architectural island", with bold, white forms, that would also serve to revitalize the surrounding urban fabric. The theme appealed to him, as he would later declare:
At Niemeyer's suggestion, the anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro was invited to develop the cultural project for the memorial, also collaborating in defining the elements needed for the architectural complex. Chief of the Civil House during the presidency of João Goulart, Darcy Ribeiro had his political rights revoked after the 1964 military coup, living from then on in exile in several Latin American countries (he worked in Uruguay, Venezuela and Mexico and was an adviser to Salvador Allende in Chile and to Velasco Alvarado in Peru), thus having a great affinity with the project's theme. Ribeiro had also previously collaborated with Niemeyer on the design of the Integrated Centers of Public Education (CIEPs), another reason that led the architect to recommend him for the role.Oscar Niemeyer 100 anos. (in Portuguese) Nossa América, 2007, no. 25, p. 28.
Darcy Ribeiro had the support of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo (USP) in conceiving the cultural project. Furthermore, he invited several intellectuals connected to USP to draft the profile of the future institution, such as Antonio Candido, Alfredo Bosi and Carlos Guilherme Mota. The project was based on the premise of proposing the grouping of the different Latin American realities into a single set of problems, drawing on the consistent similarities among the region's peoples. Ribeiro also conceived the creation of the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies (CBEAL) to serve as the memorial's academic branch, a coordinating body bringing together three public universities in São Paulo state (USP, Unesp and Unicamp), the state's Research Foundation and the Secretariat of Development, devoted to fostering and debating ideas and research that could turn the memorial into a catalyzing center of initiatives for Latin American development.
In 1988, to assemble the institution's collection of Latin American popular art, Darcy Ribeiro created a working group made up of the photographer Maureen Bisilliat, her husband Jacques Bisilliat, a specialist in popular art, and the architect Antônio Marcos da Silva, responsible for collecting the items on trips made to Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay. Later, Maureen would take on the role of curator of the Creativity Pavilion, where the pieces were subsequently exhibited.
From an architectural standpoint, the construction of the memorial would represent for Niemeyer the opportunity to implement in Brazil the technological advances used in the previous decade in the project for the University of Constantine, in Algiers. The massing of the main buildings would be resolved by means of large surfaces of concrete and glass, with well-marked vertical counterpoints. The buildings would be made with structures described by engineer José Carlos Süssekind as "bold";standing out, above all, the library with its supports located outside the building, joined by a beam, allowing a completely open interior, and the auditorium with three vaults, which can be considered a kind of reinterpretation of his work on the Pampulha Church. The unity of the complex would be ensured by the widespread use of curved surfaces, painted white.Oscar Niemeyer 100 anos. (in Portuguese) Nossa América, 2007, no. 25, p. 34.
Work on the memorial began in October 1987, involving more than a thousand workers and using about 2,200 tonnes of steel. Construction proceeded at an accelerated pace: upon completion of the work, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo noted that "rarely has a work of such grandeur arisen from nothing, with such speed". The inauguration took place on March 18, 1989. On July 8 of that same year, Orestes Quércia sanctioned Law No. 6,472, establishing the Latin America Memorial Foundation, granting the newly created facility the status of an administratively and financially autonomous body. At the time of its inauguration, there were several criticisms of the project's execution. Built without a competitive bidding process, the memorial cost the public treasury ten times more than the initially projected amount. There were also criticisms of the architectural approach and usefulness of the project.
In its first years of operation, the Latin America Memorial gained visibility through events aimed at broad audiences, especially free music performances that brought together thousands of people. Included in this list are, among others, names such as Mercedes Sosa, Astor Piazzolla, Libertad Lamarque, Caetano Veloso and Tom Jobim. Other notable artistic events during the period were the performances of the Cuban National Ballet, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (under the direction of Zubin Mehta) and the . In the visual arts field, the Memorial hosted important shows, such as the retrospectives of Johann Moritz Rugendas, Fernando Botero and Oswaldo Guayasamín, as well as an exhibition dedicated to the writer and photographer Juan Rulfo. The Memorial also sought to foster its own cultural production, creating the magazine Nova América, aimed at showcasing the continent's artistic and cultural expressions and to promote exchange among academic, intellectual and artistic communities. Launched in 1989, the magazine currently has a quarterly frequency and a print run of 3,000 copies, distributed to public libraries and Latin American and Spanish universities and also sold at some points in São Paulo.
As the headquarters of the Latin American Parliament and through the activities developed around the "Presidents of Latin America" project, established in 2006, the Memorial received important figures from the political and intellectual world, from ambassadors and consuls to heads of state. Some of the visitors include Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro, Mário Soares, Eduardo Duhalde, César Gaviria, Hugo Chávez, Pope Benedict XVI and the Brazilian leaders Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Recently, the memorial has sought to offer activities aimed at audience development and the dissemination of contemporary Latin American cultural production. The São Paulo Latin American Film Festival and the Ibero-American Theatre Festival stand out among these initiatives. In April 2006, the Latin America Memorial Chair was created to promote the development of relevant themes through the systematic study of the cultural, historical and political realities of Latin American countries. It was awarded the UNESCO endorsement in 2007. In 2009, the Memorial launched the Virtual Library of Latin America to organize and disseminate information resources about the region and to coordinate mechanisms for accessing and disseminating the cultural, artistic, and technical-scientific output of leading institutions in the field. The Sementeira project, aimed at encouraging the study of literature in elementary schools, is also among the initiatives.
Fire at the Simón Bolívar Auditorium in 2013