Invisible seams: black memories and territorialities in the district of Santa Eudóxia

• Grant number: 23/06366-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: Joana D'Arc de Oliveira
• Grantee: Gerlânia Bezerra da Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present research proposal is linked to the Post-Doctoral Project "Afro-Brazilian Cultural Heritage: Casas e Quintais Negros Urbanos como Espaços de Resistências", which has been developed since 2020 by our supervisor in the Post-Doctoral Program of the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the USP - IAU/USP. The work consists of mapping the urban black territories that emerged in the context of post-abolition in cities in the interior of São Paulo state, as forms of resistance to urban legislation, urban projects and actions of erasure, exclusion and discrimination of black cultures undertaken by the State and the national white elite, based on Scientific Racism, in vogue in Europe since the late nineteenth century. In this scientific initiation research, we seek to map the black presence and their territories in the district of Santa Eudóxia, located in São Carlos-SP. To this end, we sought to expand the theoretical framework, intersecting the concepts of race, territory, urban space and architecture, in parallel to the field survey composed of interviews, documentary, photographic and architectural surveys of black territories, represented by houses, backyards, religious and cultural spaces maintained and preserved by black people in the cities and that were organized as spaces of resistance and preservation of African and Afro-Brazilian cultures.