Sorocaba river

from natural resource to 'reaper of lives'

Abstract

The article analyzes how the Sorocaba River, historically regarded as an essential natural resource for the city’s urban and economic development, has come to be seen as a “reaper of lives” due to the recurrence of floods and tragedies associated with its overflow. The objective is to understand how the symbolic and media construction of natural violence contributes to blaming the river and concealing the structural causes of disasters, such as irregular land occupation and the impermeabilization of riverbanks. The adopted method consists of documentary and historical analysis of reports from the newspaper Cruzeiro do Sul on the major floods of 1929, 1983, and 2024, in addition to theoretical reflections on the personification of nature and the aestheticization of violence in the media. The study concludes that the media, by turning suffering into spectacle and attributing responsibility for tragedies to nature, reinforces simplistic narratives and diverts attention from human actions and public authorities, perpetuating the logic of blaming the river. It highlights the need to critically reflect on these narratives, recognizing the role of the media in shaping collective imagination and naturalizing inequalities, in order to promote fairer and more effective public and environmental policies, as well as a more harmonious coexistence between city, nature, and society.