Semiotic landscapes and immigration in São Paulo

Abstract

The cultural and economic dynamics of the city of São Paulo, both in the past and the present, has as one of its main actors the otherness coming from another country: refugees and immigrants. Several immigrant groups imprint their presence in the space of different neighborhoods. This work aims to observe and analyze elements of the presence of immigrants and refugees demarcated in the public space of São Paulo neighborhoods, such as, for example, foreign languages and the immigrant trade. It is through these elements that we can reflect on the dynamics of the relationship between the local and the global, with its transformation or its denial through local spatial instances. As a kind of case study, still provisional, we examined a street of the Bolivian community in the city of São Paulo. We observe, initially, how there are mixed practices that manifest themselves both in linguistic use and in the use of certain spaces by this community. To base our analysis, we rely on the concept of semiotic landscape that will allow us to understand the presence and interaction between different languages established in the public space and the transformations that take place in the places to understand the dynamics (social, cultural, linguistic) present in the metropolis of São Paulo.