The city of Rio de Janeiro is going through times of conflicts. It is thus an excellent platform for the analysis of the appropriation of urban spaces in the capital city, and of the levels of resistance raised by other projects, even those with little visibility and power. This setting stimulated the search for the consolidation and diffusion of alternative projects related to memories as an attempt to “pluralize” patrimonial debates. It was at this moment that a severe crisis hit the Museu da Maré, a recently built space dedicated to the memory of favelas. From that moment on, a wide-ranging mobilization involved social movements, public organizations, intellectuals, and politicians. This work seeks to present the point of inflection in which the Museu da Maré, to guarantee its permanence, tried to find patrimonialization strategies that reinforce the need for the representation of a place and subjects normally set aside from national narratives, that is the favela and its residents, in a context marked by an attempt to implement a Police Pacifying Unit (UPP) through military occupation.