Entre cartas e chamamentos: a história social da cultura escrita de imigrantes portugueses no Brasil entre 1896 e 1929

Abstract

Incorporating theoretical and methodological perspectives of Cultural History and Social History of Written Culture (CASTILLO GÓMEZ, 2003), this investigation aims to interpret and discuss one hundred and eleven personal correspondences with male, female, and collective signatures, written in Portuguese by immigrants, between 1896 and 1929, catalogued and classified by the Immigration Museum of the State of São Paulo as “call letters”. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the everyday and intimate value of these documents, as well as the historical context that fostered the expressive production of missives at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Brazil, the only form of communication between those who left their lands and those who stayed in their place of origin. From the speeches, practices and representations, such missives, which are configured as ordinary private writings, which mix personal and bureaucratic aspects, will be studied with emphasis on their sociocultural functionalities. It is intended, in this interdisciplinary context, to remove unfortunate Portuguese immigrants (men and women) from historical oblivion, approaching them through their personal texts, which are usually generalized and silenced in the great narratives. After all, what is known about Brazil and the writing of immigrants during this period? What were those letters like? Who wrote them and why? To whom were they written? The ones who signed them were also the ones who wrote them? The answers to these questions will be presented and, as well as the ways to reach them, discussed (PETRUCCI, 2003), with the aim of contributing to the construction of a Social History of Written Culture in Brazil through epistolography.