This article discusses the connections between history, human rights and citizenship, through the lens of the struggles by communities founded as quilombos to legalize their land occupancy based on the provisions of the 1988 Constitution and on complementary regulations passed in the 21st century. Since the 1980s, the inhabitants of the Marambaia quilombo, an area located in the southern Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro, which in the 1800s consisted of plantations and quilombos, have fought to maintain their lands and to ensure their cultural and territorial autonomy in the face of pressure from the Brazilian Navy, the Federal Government and the court system. The paper discusses the various stages of this struggle and the diverse actors who have entered the scene (lawyers, judges, anthropologists, archeologists, NGOs, Brazil's Public Ministry as well as federal and state governmental agencies) and the discourse on memory the meanings and uses of history and of the legislation on quilombo residents and their rights. The article also includes transcriptions and analyses of newly uncovered historical documents from 1870 referring to the existence of quilombos in the region.
rural black communities; quilombos; Marambaia (Rio de Janeiro); memory and citizenship