A liberdade se torna festa em um mundo velho : associativismo negro, carnavais, família e trabalho no pós-abolição em Sabará, Minas Gerais (1896-1945)

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the trajectory of the black associative space "Clube Mundo Velho," located in the municipality of Sabará, in the central region of Minas Gerais, during the first half of the twentieth century. This institution is a social club and carnival parade founded in 1896, based on the political and social articulation of the black population, which sought to maintain their meetings in the urban space in the post-abolition period. The club was built upon alliances between white and black families, and this space served as a privileged place for the maintenance of a paternalistic logic and for the articulation of black strategies to achieve better living conditions in the republican environment. The industrialization process with the implementation of the Belgo-Mineira Steel Company, in 1917, gave new meaning to the role of local black associativism and redefined the meanings of the club. The Belgians and Luxembourgers, the leaders of the company, made use of old paternalistic and patronal relations, constituting asymmetrical relations among whites and reinforcing the dependencies of the black community on the local and foreign elites. Through the maintenance of Mundo Velho, the Afro-descendant population constituted networks of solidarity, formulated strategies of negotiation of cultural practices, and forged a positive representation of themselves. The carnival parades were the great stage for the construction of new discourses and performances in the public space. They were configured from multiple dimensions that materialized a complex system of relations and meanings, of which the members of the clubs were both producers and products. This research follows a trend in historiographical production that is dedicated to understanding the forms of political and cultural participation of the black population during the Brazilian "First Republic" and its rearticulations after the government of Getúlio Vargas. The research invests in the analysis of a set of experiences, articulations, and actions carried out by different social actors and groups, which proposed a series of initiatives through distinct forms of associativism. From this perspective, the analyses focus on the experiences of racialization experienced by different social actors in the post-abolition period and how they guided practices that aimed to establish new territorialities in the urban public space.