Poder Legislativo: mirror of the Ponta Grossa community

On December 6, 1855, the Câmara Municipal de Ponta Grossa had no building, plenary, technology or even an address of its own. There was a table, a few councilmen and a city beginning to write its history. On that day, the residence of Joaquim Procópio de Souza Castro, in the then Santana Village of Ponta Grossa, became the provisional headquarters of the newly installed Legislative. The minutes record that, for lack of public building, it was there that the sessions would be held. Joaquim Procópio, the most voted councillor, took a seat at the head of the table; the others settled around.

The House was born together with a community that had just gained administrative autonomy. Small, almost domestic, but with a task that would cross generations: to participate in the decisions on the paths of that community. There is a little documentary curiosity. The minutes record four councilors present at the inaugural session, but end with six signatures. The first legislature is traditionally identified with six members. The divergence remains in the document, remembering that not everything comes to us perfectly explained.

What leaves no doubt is that, at that moment, a trajectory was beginning that would accompany the profound transformations of Ponta Grossa. The village grew. It became a city. The railways, new economic activities, different social and cultural groups and, with them, new challenges. The community has changed and so has its legislature. Because a Câmara Municipal is, in a way, a mirror.

And mirrors have an interesting feature: they cannot reflect what no longer exists. Between 1937 and 1945, during the Estado Novo, the Municipal Chambers were closed throughout the country.

In Ponta Grossa, the Legislative also had its activities interrupted. The return, in 1947, accompanied the resumption of democratic life and returned to the community an institutional space of political representation. Over the following decades, it also changed the place where this representation took place. The Chamber operated for many years in a building of the Rua Augusto Ribas, which no longer exists. In 1982, a new stage began with the inauguration of the Paço da Liberdade, in Avenida Visconde de Taunay, where the Legislative remains to this day. But perhaps the most significant transformation is not in the walls. In 1855, the House of Commons had to occupy the house of a citizen to begin functioning. Today, the challenge is to be present in the spaces where the community itself is.

With 19 councilors, the Legislative exercises the functions of legislating and supervising, but also expands the paths of approximation with the population. The Neighbourhood Council and the House of Roça take the Legislative to different regions of the municipality, including the rural area. The Youth Chamber brings students closer to the democratic experience. In the digital environment, the PG+VC application expands access to information, projects, sessions and participation channels.

The accessibility also became part of this transformation, with works and adaptations in the seat of the Legislative. After all, participating in public life presupposes, first of all, being able to reach it. The 1855 Ponta Grossa is not the same as today. Its dimensions are other. Your challenges are others. The forms of communication and participation have also changed.

But the need for representation remains.

To tell the story of the Câmara Municipal de Ponta Grossa is to tell a part of the history of the city itself: its changes, its interruptions, its achievements and the new paths found to bring together representatives and represented.

In 1855, four councilmen met in a private house to begin the Town Hall of a small village. Today, the Legislative is in the headquarters, in the neighborhoods, in the rural area, in the schools and also on the screen of the mobile phone. The address has changed. The structure has changed. Technology has changed. Society has changed. What remains is the need for the community to have a voice.

Because a Câmara Municipal is not just the place where laws are made. It is one of the places where a city looks at itself, recognizes itself, debates its paths and decides, collectively, where it wants to go. Perhaps this is the true meaning of a Poder Legislativo as a mirror of the community: not only to reflect the city that exists, but to be attentive to the city that is becoming.

 

Article for the book "PG 203 years: From the route of the tropeiros to the tracks of innovation"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXbbskS3jCQ