The Memorial da Resistência Reference Center is a physical and virtual space for connecting research sources on the institution’s heritage repertoire through its collection. The goal of this space is to condense references as a resource for researchers and the general public.
Our collection is the result of the work of the Research Center, initially dedicated to the Coleta Regular de Testemunhos [Regular Testimonies Collection] and the Lugares da Memória [Places of Memory] programs. The first is dedicated to conducting recorded interviews with people who can testify about aspects of their experiences during the last Brazilian dictatorship, contributing to the expansion of historical understanding of events, social processes, political conjunctures, and lifestyle, among countless other issues referring to individual and collective experiences that shaped social life in that context. On the other hand, Lugares da Memória [Places of Memory Program] aims to expand the institution’s preservationist reach through the creation of an inventory of places of memory of political resistance and repression in the state of São Paulo related to Brazilian authoritarian periods. Taking into account the privileged location of the Memorial da Resistência in a space identified as a place of memory (the former Deops/SP building), the program is structured through a survey of references and various historical sources (bibliographic, audiovisual, and iconographic) that relate collective memory and history as instruments for preservationist actions. Finally, it is important to note that, in 2021, the archive on the institutional memory of the Memorial da Resistência was also organized, thus constituting a new collection for public research. This archival front makes it possible to carry out studies on how the institution has approached themes related to political resistance and repression in its cultural, educational, and expository actions throughout its years of operation.
As a virtual space, the Reference Center brings together our entire collection in an organized and easily accessible digital repository that allows the user to map the political memory of repression and resistance in contexts of state violence, with emphasis on the historical period of the Vargas dictatorship (1937–1945) and the civil-military dictatorship (1964–1985). This mapping is structured in the repository by the intersection of oral testimonies and a survey of documentary, iconographic, and bibliographic references. As a research tool, a controlled vocabulary is also being developed to support the assertive indexing of the content of existing documents in the digital collection.
As a physical space, the Reference Center brings together a collection of important publications on the topics covered by the institution, in addition to making available for consultation, by appointment, the institutional memory archive of the Memorial da Resistência, which holds the organized documentary collection on the history of the exhibitions developed at the institution, the documents and audiovisual files of the Cultural Action program and the training materials developed by Educational Action program.
For in-person consultation of the collection, please send your request to pesquisa@memorialdaresistenciasp.org.br
