O patrimônio gastronômico da Quarta Colônia como potencial comida de geoparque

Abstract

The social and economic changes that happened in the world during the last century, greatly impacted the food sector, with the consequent emergence of a food globalization and homogenization, which wasn´t well accepted by the population, due to the distance between production and consumption that beyond to causing suspicion, sharpened the fear of loss of identity of products. As a form of resistance to industrialized products, regional cuisines emerged, encouraging an innate and local diet, with appreciation of traditional knowledge, transmitted between generations, which give rise to unique products. These constitute as a gastronomic heritage full of memories, identifying and distinguishing the territory that produces it, as can be seen in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, known as Quarta Colonia. This territory is made up of nine municipalities and was colonized by immigrants, mainly Italians and Germans, in the 19th century, still maintaining part of the culture inherited from overseas. The Quarta Colonia is in the process of being evaluated for recognition as a Geopark by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in a joint project of ProRectory of Extension of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) with the municipalities, through the Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Quarta Colonia (CONDESUS). This possibility of recognition constitutes a great opportunity to preserve the local gastronomic heritage, considering the holistic nature of geoparks, which combine protection and development. Trying to safeguard this culinary heritage, to don´t be lost in time, the following problem arises: which preparations, as well as the know-how linked to them, of the Italian immigrants and descendants of the Fourth Colony can be vindicated as Geopark´s food? Trying to answer for this concern, the objective of the present study is to identify, among the gastronomic heritage of Quarta Colonia, the descendants of Italian immigrant’s foods with the potential to become Geopark´s foods. Therefore, it´s necessary to: recall recipes, techniques and instruments used by the Italian immigrant´s community and their descendants; disseminate these recipes in the community itself as a way of feeding back into the cultural identity debate; provide material on the regional culinary culture for the cultural activities for implementing the Geopark. This research was developed in the Graduate Program in Cultural Heritage at the Federal University of Santa Maria, in the area of concentration Architecture and Material Heritage within the research line Preservation of Material Heritage. This study is anchored in qualitative approach, having as a product a book of recipes with the discrimination, photos and curiosities about the preparations chosen as identity by the research.