A Presença italiana no cerrado : festival de Nova Veneza(GO)

Abstract

his research investigates the relevance of the Italian Festival of Nova Veneza as a new cultural manifestation in the state of Goiás. It aims to understand if Italian culture is present in the daily life of Nova Veneza citizens, or if the festival only works as a way to create an image of the city though city marketing. The goals proposed for this research are the following: comprehend if the Italian Festival, a phenomenon of cultural hybridism, may be seen as an invented tradition or as a pastiche of another Italian-Brazilian festival; analyze the festival’s history and organization, pointing out the ruptures and continuities in building an image or the City Marketing to promote the city; and identify the festival role in the development of the local and regional tourism. It is possible to affirm that this event represent the cultural hybridism expressed mainly though gastronomy, the dance and the music. The city is member of the State Gastronomic Circuit and gathers a considerable amount of people for the festival in which they express the peculiarities of this cultural expression what contributes for both the strengthening of tourism and the development of the local economy. In the past years, it’s noticeable that small cities have been looking for ways of development by building an image that identify or references the local singularities through the tourism and the city marketing. It means the festival may be seen an attempt to use city marketing strategies to impulse the local development both socially and economically seeking to foment the creation of jobs and the increase of income in the city, though tourism. This research is distributed in three chapters in which it is discussed the historical facts about the Italian immigration to Brazil, the presence of the Italian people and other immigrants in the of Goiás and their arrival to the city of Nova Veneza; then the Italian festival is analyzed in the perspective of cultural hybridism, the local patrimony and the creation of a tourist product; and finally, it describes the historical analysis of the Italian festival pointing out its ruptures and continuities, and the power of city marketing in building the image of the festival.