“Sozinha eu não vou, mas juntas nós vamos” : práticas políticas e pedagógicas de cuidados da Coletiva Mulheres da Quebrada no Aglomerado da Serra, Belo Horizonte/MG

Abstract

This work is grounded in an ethnography conducted with the Coletiva Mulheres da Quebrada, a movement located at the Aglomerado da Serra, in Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The thesis aims to reflect on how these women, amidst interconnected structures of power and oppression with deep socio-historical roots, enact multiple forms of collective care production, generating concrete effects on each other’s lives and the place they inhabit. Through methodologies, practices, and political and pedagogical strategies of care, the Coletiva Mulheres da Quebrada challenges the unequal power dynamics that relegate to Black and marginalized women the majority of the exploitation and overburden of care work contrasting this with the lack of care experienced by these women. The research seeks to understand the constitution of these women’s experiences and subjectivities not only from the perspective of the violence they experienced but, above all, the ways in which they repair their lives every day, trying not just to survive but also seeking well-being, through self-care and care for one another. The collective practices mobilized by this movement subvert dualistic and dichotomous logics, alleviate the (over)burden and draw attention to the potential for democratizing and politicizing care practices, based on recognizing the interdependency among people and the need for reciprocity in their relations. The Coletiva’s practices constitute a safe territory of care, based on a self-defined and emancipatory logic, made by and for marginalized women, relying on alliances and conscious of their place within difference. In addition to producing effects on the constitution and reconfiguration of subjectivities, experiences and life trajectories, the collective care practices of this movement - anchored in ancestral knowledge, inventiveness and aspirations to transformation - contribute to a broader understanding of care as a practical, political and epistemological concept.