O sentimento de Modernidade maceioense

This paper aims at discussing, from the registers of the mayor’s Sandoval Caju government, an aspect of the modern period in Maceió: the collective feeling of modernity. The analysis of the Modern Movement in Maceió raises questions about the collision of the modern proposal with the provincial and countrylike culture of Alagoas. In the first modernization in the beginning of the 20th century, the city receives the title:“Smile City”. From 1961 on, the ex-Mayor Sandoval Cajú, makes a democratic modernization: reforms the 22 existing squares and creates 36 ones, in the elite and popular neighbourhoods. He follows through with his campaign promise: “to recover the smile” of the city and makes real a proposal of democratic modernization, and strengthens the modern feeling – that of rupture with tradition. The physical registers – in form of architecture and landscape – are representations of the local expression of modernity, and the reports fill in the gaps, highlighting the outstanding doings, since “the mouth only speaks (and always will) of what the heart is filled with” (ROCHA in LIMA JR, 2001). With the discussion in this paper, we hope to contribute with an understanding of the complexity of the Modern Movement expression, as a local influence that is translated into local expression, and the consequential preservation of the reminiscent objects from that period.