IN STEREO

You know that we were declared a heritage city and they are now saying that they will remove the title. But [do] they realise the burden they throw at us? I’m almost forced to sell because I see no other way out. We have risked too much. My house was beautiful; I adored it. I like heritage; I had never thought to destroy it like that. But unfortunately, I’ve been left with no option. We do good things here, I think, and we have recognition from people. I still think of the opportunities. But even though I have a large clientele nowadays, given the problems I have had, with pain in my heart I have to raise my hands. It is not that I wanted to destroy it, but that Heritage forced me. Yet they say the opposite: that we are destroying the heritage. I know that at some point, there was funding to support exactly these houses that are now collapsing out of abandonment and deterioration.

But the amount wasn’t enough. I even heard that all the money has gone to [only] one or two places. I think that if someone really wants the heritage maintained and preserved to show people, there should be some support. But I see that when the time comes, there is no such thing. It’s useless. They say that they help to take care of it, but they do not do anything to give us a hand. Yet, they are complaining after a house falls. If that family does not have a way to defend themselves, they are doomed. They make the family the culprit when they are the culprits. Watch out; it’s just like that. It is not measured with the same bar at all. There is the law that we must take care of the heritage, but of course for some it is enforced, and for others not. I have seen the corruption; I have experienced it. – Jacinto