WARRIOR: IMMATERIAL OR INVISIBLE CULTURAL PATRIMONY?
Alagoas, Guerreiro, patrimony
The present work deals with one of the greatest emblems of the State of Alagoas: the
merriment Guerreiro Alagoano. The figure in the church hat with multicolored ribbons adorns the
state in several places, especially in the capital, Maceió. From the airport to the coast, from downtown to
periphery, in all regions of the city, there will be a painting, a sculpture, a handicraft, a
portrait, an urban intervention that will display the hat, a symbol of merriment, of a
cultural manifestation, of an identity, of a state. How the frevo umbrella stops
Pernambuco and Farol da Barra to Bahia, Guerreiro's hat affirms, without saying a word
word, that you are in Alagoas territory. The hat is a sovereign icon of aesthetic beauty
unique and original, easily appropriated by society, by rulers and artists. But the
hat is a part of a much larger whole: a merriment, a cultural manifestation that
emerged and gained its contours in Alagoas, which involved dreams and dedication of generations of
Alagoas, which was built, renovated, appropriated and even usurped throughout its almost
100 years of existence. The hat belongs to the Guerreiro, not The Guerreiro. And yet he is
much more present alone than with the whole of which it is a part, as if it could exist
dissociated from the demonstration. The researcher – I learned – is first and foremost a questioner. So
the question: why does this happen?