THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITIES
By Julia Bruce
This is the column Who Makes Redes, a compilation of the stories of people who build our organization and who work hard every day to do what we do best: actions and projects for residents of Maré. Learn about these stories, trajectories, experiences and the history of Redes da Maré itself - and how this work and the challenges faced since the pandemic have transformed them.
Edson Diniz (51), born in Serra Branca (PB) and raised in Maré, is a historian graduated from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Due to his experiences in the midst of social inequality, Edson has as a north in his personal and professional life the collective struggle for a more equal world. He worked at Redes da Maré for more than 20 years and has been the director of the institution, as well as a professor, coordinator and director of the Pre-College Course and creator of the Nucleus of Memories and Identities of Maré (NUMIM).
“I have a very close history with the residents of Maré, which awakened me to social work”, says Edson, who arrived at Nova Holanda at just one year old, where he spent his childhood. One of the first memories of the territory is at the age of 14. Only later, did Edson consider taking a higher education course, as there were no community pre-college courses: “this discussion did not exist in Maré.”.
Entering the university was a defining factor in Edson's path: “it opened up new perspectives for me, I quit my job at the mall and started teaching”, always emphasizing the importance of expanding possibilities for young people from Maré and other favelas. In 1999, he was invited by Eliana Sousa, who is also from Serra Branca, in Paraíba, to teach History at the Pre-College Course, where he later acted as coordinator and director.
In his journey as director of the institution, he emphasizes that Redes was born with the prospect of discussing topics beyond education, such as public security, and which have become axes of work. What impressed him most in the two decades working at Redes was the opportunity to help many people to discover other possibilities. “Redes opens many doors and windows that we would hardly have access to without it. Favela is a different place, with a lot of resilience and resistance, but you can't forget that the favela is the result of Brazilian inequality”.
In this fight for a more just society, the preservation of stories and memories has always been essential for Edson's life. Thus, he brought up the idea of creating NUMIM within the Art, Culture, Memories and Identities axis, and this had to do with his time at the Pre-College, as he always told the story of Maré in class and said: “Why don’t we create a place to preserve this history?”. He saw that something had to be created, because the older people were leaving and so was this story. “NUMIM was born from this desire to say: the favela is also the city, but to be part of it, you have to tell the story of the favela. Without history, it has no identity, and without identity it has no place in the city”.
Edson ended his career at Redes in December 2021 and reflects that the main challenge today is to maintain the collective spirit in an institution that grows more and more. “The fight has to be daily. Those who stay and who will join Redes must know that it is an institution that is there to build networks that can help change the reality of Maré and other favelas. The spirit must always be restless, do not let it settle down. We must have a spirit of internal and social transformation”.
