Experiências negras no existir coletivamente: Sociedade Recreativa Beneficente União Rosariense (1915 – 1965)

Abstract

This thesis investigates the foundation and trajectory of the Sociedade Recreativa Beneficente União Rosariense, established by a group of Black female and male workers in the city of Rosário do Sul, in the Central Campaign Microregion of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The analysis focuses on the period from 1915, when it was founded, to 1965. Although the União Society remained active until 2018, the final temporal cut of this research was established to understand its constitution until 1965, a year that marked the inauguration of a new headquarters for the club and from which its recreational activities were intensified. It was found that the space of this Black associative was no longer just for its members but also for other social segments of the city, which would require further analyses considering this new context. This investigation was carried out using the theoretical and methodological framework of Social History, inspired by Microhistory and observing the post-Abolition period. The analysis is based on the use of sources gathered from visits to historical archives and museums, as well as documentation produced by the União Rosariense Society itself, such as minutes and statutes, photographs kept in the personal collections of club members and their descendants, and interviews with people related to Rosariense associativism, as well as electronic documentation. From a methodological standpoint, the use of Oral History stands out as a privileged resource for the production, analysis, and interpretation of data and information generated through testimonies given to the researcher by members of this association. This study highlights the organization of an association of Black women and men with its own headquarters located in the center of the village/city of Rosário, where its protagonist’s held dances, cultural festivals, soirées, social gatherings, sports, and welfare activities in an attempt to realize freedom, citizenship, and identity affirmation in a racialized context. With a closer look throughout the investigation at the intersections between race, gender, class, power, and work, experiences were observed in which this Black collective strengthened bond of sociability, solidarity, identity, and citizen struggle. From the perspective of historical reparations, this thesis on the União Society, contributes to a historiography that seeks to confer visibility and historicity to the individual and collective trajectories of Black people in the past and present of Rosário, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil.