Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a memória coletiva e a etnicidade da comunidade distrital de Vila Seca, incluída em situação rural, localizada nos Campos de Cima da Serra da Encosta Superior do Nordeste do Rio Grande do Sul, no município de Caxias do Sul. Na última década, esta localidade mostra-se palco da instalação de uma barragem para fins de captação de água potável à população de Caxias do Sul. Em meio a um contexto de limitações de usos do solo da região, moradores buscam formas de potencializar recursos materiais e simbólicos para a comunidade. Convém destacar que a localidade foi perpassada por atividades tropeiras em finais do século XIX e meados do século XX, o que lhe conferiu a caracterização de pouso a tropeiros. Por parte dos moradores do distrito de Vila Seca, compreende-se que sua identidade étnica originou-se de populações imigrantes luso-açorianas, diferenciando-se, assim, da identidade majoritária de seu município, conhecida pela sua italianidade. Nesse contexto, observa-se uma organização social responsável pela manutenção das fronteiras étnicas e realce de sinais diacríticos, em um processo contínuo de dicotomização entre o “Nós” em oposição a “Eles”. Evidenciam-se por parte da comunidade momentos de efervescência coletiva, relacionados às festas distritais. Nas festividades, demonstram-se tanto a religiosidade da comunidade na devoção ao Divino Espírito Santo quanto o cultivo dos hábitos de homem do campo. / This thesis aims to analyze the collective memory and ethnicity of the community in the district of Vila Seca, which is located in a rural area in the Campos de Cima da Serra region of the upper Northeastern slopes of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the municipality of Caxias do Sul. In the last decade, this location became the location for the installation of a dam to provide drinking water to the population of Caxias do Sul. In a context of limitations on land use in the area, residents seek ways to raise the potential of material and symbolic resources for the community. It should be emphasized that many mule trains passed through that region in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, which gave it the character of a rest stop for mule drivers. Through interviews with the residents of the district of Vila Seca, it is possible to understand that their ethnic identity originated from Portuguese-Azorean immigrant populations, thus differing from the identity of the majority of their municipality, well known for its Italian identity. In this context, there the social organization of the district maintains ethnic boundaries and highlights diacritical signs of identity, enhancement of in a continuous process of dichotomization between "Us" and "Them". The community displays moments of collective effervescence, related to the district festivals. These festivities manifest both religious devotion to the community’s patron saint, the Divine Holy Spirit, and the cultivation of rural customs.

La présente étude est une ethnographie du boulevard Saint-Laurent qui a duré 11 mois et au cours de laquelle j’ai intégré ce que l’on qualifie aujourd’hui le « cœur » du boulevard, la portion allant de la rue Sherbrooke à l’avenue Mont-Royal. Me basant sur des observations, des entretiens avec des résident.es et des commerçant.es, des brochures touristiques et les installations éducatives longeant l’artère, j’entreprends une entreprise de démystification : comprendre la réalité du boulevard contemporain en la substituant à l’aura énigmatique et mystérieuse que l’on retrouve dans les écrits historiques et les discours populaires. En menant des entretiens, je dénote une « nostalgie moderne » chez les résident.es et les commerçant.es de l’artère et montre leur utilisation différenciée de qualificatifs comme « gentrification » et « effervescence ». Par mes observations de tableaux éducatifs longeant les trottoirs, je fais l’expérience d’une « nostalgie post-moderne » et révèle les intérêts des sociétés de développement quant à la transformation commerciale du boulevard. Je perçois que les sens attribués à l’imaginaire du boulevard contemporain se définissent selon un rapport temporel et critique. Ma méthode d’enquête est à la fois phénoménologique, dans la mesure où elle reprend la figure du flâneur de Walter Benjamin comme posture d’observation, et « empirique », notamment par l’utilisation du feuilleton sociologique inspiré de Siegfried Kracauer, approche qui insiste sur la matérialité du quotidien, les discours et les observations. / The current study is an ethnography of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, which lasted 11 months and during which I integrated what is now called the “heart” of the boulevard, the portion between Sherbrooke street to Mont-Royal avenue. Based on observations, interviews with residents and shop owners, tourist brochures, and historical posters installed along the boulevard, I undertake an enterprise of demystification: to understand concretely the reality of the contemporary boulevard by going beyond an enigmatic and mysterious aura perpetuated in historical writings and popular discourses. In conducting interviews, I note a “modern nostalgia” among residents and shop owners of the boulevard and show their differentiated uses of words like “gentrification” and “effervescence”. Through my observations of historical boards lining the sidewalks, I experience a “post-modern nostalgia” and reveal the interests of development associations in the commercial transformation of the boulevard. I perceive that the meanings attributed to the imagination of the contemporary boulevard are defined according to a temporal and critical relation. My method of inquiry is both phenomenological, as it takes up Walter Benjamin’s figure of the flâneur as a posture of observation, and “empirical”, in particular through the use of sociological feuilletons inspired by Siegfried Kracauer, an approach which stresses the importance of the materiality of everyday life, discourses and observations.