Surroundings of the Center of Black Cultures of Jabaquara and Patio de Manobras do Metrô. Image from Google Maps, 2022.
The area occupied by the Sítio da Ressaca had strategic importance for the black populations that lived in the surroundings of the old Vila de Piratininga, current central region of São Paulo. During the slave period, the mountainous relief of the region and the dense vegetation cover provided places of shelter for the black populations, besides camouflaging the paths for a “quilombo of passage” to the coast of the current port cities of Santos and São Vicente. On the way down Serra do Mar, the Quilombo de Cubatão, later called Quilombo do Jabaquara, was installed. This process was undertaken by a secret group of men called caifazes, led by Antônio Bento, recognized for his role in the abolitionist struggle by helping enslaved people to gain their freedom. Casa do Sítio was installed on the side of the road to Santo Amaro and was made of rammed earth, a technique introduced by the Portuguese colonization and used during the Bandeirantes invasion of the countryside of the colony. The last owner to acquire the Sítio was responsible for its subdivision in 1969, which promoted the urbanization that resulted in the current Jabaquara neighborhood. In the same year, the state government expropriated more than a third of the area of the site for the construction of the Jabaquara do Metrô station and its maneuvering area, whose railway lines border the highest portion of the lot’s slope. Transformed into a park in 1980, the reinforced concrete building that housed the Jabaquara Cultural Center, which has a theater and two unified libraries, was reopened. During the 1990s, the place received the Acervo da Memória e do Viver Afro-brasileiro “Caio Egydio de Souza Aranha”, organized by Mãe Sylvia de Oxalá and which is currently under the custody of Axé Ilê Obá, proclaimed as a pratimony by the defense council of the State patrimony, the Condephaat. Currently, the House works as one of the units of the Museu da Cidade de São Paulo. In 2018, the place was officially recognized as the “Centro Municipal de Cultura Negra do Jabaquara Mãe Sylvia de Oxalá”.