São Bernardo do Campo sob a perspectiva de Asêncio Beltran

Abstract

This paper, through the use of photographs as image support, aims to rescue some memories of Rua Marechal Deodoro, a street located in the center of São Bernardo do Campo, one of the three main cities in São Paulo State’s ABC region. Rua Marechal Deodoro is an important historical milestone not only for the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo, but also in Brazil’s colonization process, as it was a stretch of Estrada Geral de Santos (the General Road of Santos). It is still possible to find on it two landmarks of the former Estrada Velha do Mar (the Old Coast Road). Along the street also came muleteers bringing goods from the Santos port to the city of São Paulo. The city of São Bernardo do Campo is nowadays known for its huge industrial park, and mainly its car industry. However, from the beginning of the colonization until the midtwentieth century, it was an important passage route for those bound for the city of São Paulo coming from São Paulo State’s coast, so those who passed by here necessarily passed by Rua Marechal Deodoro. The photographic images span the 1952's and 63's and were captured by the eye of photographer Ascêncio Beltran, born in 1928 in Santo André da Borda do Campo. He excelled in his profession, which he started to practice in the 40's, and reached his peak mainly in the 50's and 60's, when he went on to be the municipality's official photographer. His history blends with the history of Rua Marechal Deodoro