Federal deputy Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL-SP) presented, with the support of 9 party deputies, a project (PL 627/2023) to prohibit public assets from being named in honor of historical characters known for their violent actions against blacks and indigenous people. The text of the PL lists slaveholders, hygienists and genocides as targets of the measure.
The proposal was inspired by the initiative of councilor Luana Alves (PSOL), from the city of São Paulo, who filed PL 47/2021 with the City Council and started the movement “SP é Solo Preto e Indígena”.
If the project is approved, statues or other works of art, buildings, monuments and public roads cannot use the names of people linked to slavery or the practice of torture, for example.
In addition, the text provides that tributes that already exist must be replaced within a period of 180 days by names linked, preferably, with the conquest of the rights of the black and indigenous populations. In this category can be included the statue of the bandeirante Borba Gato, attacked in 2021.
Sâmia stated that the objective of the project is to value indigenous and black cultures in the country. “We need to honor those who really deserve it. We present this project to value the heritage, culture and history of the black people and the indigenous people, who were in fact those who built and continue to build our country, but which, due to the logic of racism, is erased and made invisible of memory and in the construction of tributes”, he said.
Despite having been conceived before the announcement, by the São Paulo government, of changing the name of a future subway station from Paulo Freire to Fernão Dias, the PL dialogues with this controversy. “It was an arbitrary and authoritarian gesture,” said Sâmia.
“The attitude of Governor Tarcísio is very regrettable. He would be more of a pioneer, who already has tributes throughout the state, and who did not have a social and popular contribution, on the contrary. Paulo Freire deserves all the tributes”.
Federal deputy Célia Xakriabá (PSOL-MG) recalled that all of Brazil is indigenous and quilombola land. “They invaded our lands, tried to exterminate our peoples and have been trying to kill us for 523 years. Ecocide, culturicide and a lot of violence is what we see in the true history of this country,” she said. “Honoring those who kill us, those who torture and who represent this entire history of violations cannot be practical in our Brazil. This is not the story we want to tell.”
Editing: Thalita Pires
