Portomarín: the wounded memory of being uprooted

Abstract

La educación patrimonial en el ámbito formal no suele incorporar las vivencias de las personas. Entrar en contacto con una comunidad que vive en conflicto con su patrimonio ofrece otra comprensión de ese legado. Para constatarlo, se ha realizado un estudio con un grupo de maestros en formación, de educación primaria. Se establecieron dos subgrupos para comprobar si la inmersión de uno de ellos en un espacio donde el patrimonio es una cuestión incómoda modifica sus percepciones sobre cómo enfocar la educación patrimonial (grupo experimental), frente al otro que no tiene esa experiencia (grupo de control). Se ha estudiado la localidad de Portomarín (Lugo), anegada en 1963 por un embalse, reconstruida con traslado de algunas arquitecturas y obligada a revisar su historia local y su identificación patrimonial. Se han utilizado métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos para analizar cambios de percepciones y diferencias discursivas entre quienes tuvieron contacto con el escenario de referencia y los que no. Los resultados parecen confirmar que la aproximación a un contexto problemático desarrolla la capacidad de empatía y argumentación crítica del futuro docente, y modifica su consideración sobre cómo enfocar su práctica profesional. Formal heritage education does not usually incorporate people’s experiences. Coming into contact with a community which lives in continual conflict with its own heritage offers a different perspective of that legacy. In order to verify this, a study was carried out with a group of trainee primary education teachers. Two subgroups were formed, one of which (the experimental group) was immersed in a place with an uncomfortable heritage issue in order to ascertain whether their perceptions were modified in comparison to the other group (the control group), which did not have this experience. The study was carried out in the town of Portomarín (Lugo), which was flooded in 1969 due to the construction of a dam and rebuilt on higher ground with some buildings being transferred brick by brick. As part of this process, the residents of the town were forced to revise their local history and their identification with their own heritage. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to analyse changes in perceptions and differences in discourse between those who came into contact with the area in question and those who did not. The results appear to confirm that contact with a problematic context develops the capacity for empathy and critical argumentation of trainee teachers and modifies their idea of how to approach the practice of their profession.