História do lar Santa Rita e a assistência à infância em Dourados-MT/MS (1965- 1982)

Abstract

This dissertation had as its theme the Lar Santa Rita de Cássia, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), founded in 1965 to provide shelter for abandoned children in the municipality of Dourados-MT/MS and region, and continues in full operation current. The objective was to narrate and analyze the history of this institution, having as a time frame the years from 1965 to 1982, a period that corresponds, respectively, to the date of foundation of the entity and the end of its first management. It was a qualitative research, whose sources used were the minutes books, register books, photographs, newspapers and legislation of the time, obtained through access to the institutional archive and the private archive of collaborators. Semi-structured interviews with four subjects who were part of the institution's history were also analyzed, obtained and treated from the Oral History methodology. To problematize the inventoried sources, we resorted to the writings of Norbert Elias and other authors who dialogue with this theoretical perspective. Once the corpus was selected, the following categories of analysis were listed: origin/foundation, installation (building/space/place), aspects of the institution's functioning during its first term, promotions, campaigns and parties held with a view to subsistence and philanthropic assistance work. After the analyzes carried out, we infer that Lar Santa Rita was founded due to the high number of abandoned children in the municipality and in the region. In its first years of foundation, it took care of a considerable number of abandoned children in front of its building and to many others sent by their own families, having been responsible for sheltering a large portion of the population of Dourados in the period. As a result of the objectives and rules inscribed in its documentation, it was evident that Lar Santa Rita was responsible for civilizing the children served, controlling their ways of being, behaving, teaching them specific standards and norms to behave socially in a to make them part of a certain group. At the same time, the discipline instituted in the name of the “proper functioning of the institution” aimed to establish and project the place of domination of adults, in the midst of the power relations established there. As for its functioning, it was observed that Lar Santa Rita, since its foundation, and at least until 1982, held parties, celebrations and promotions in order to remain in full operation and perpetuate itself over the years, having the community actively participated in this process. Such participation included, above all, individuals belonging to the Golden elite, whose actions were commonly publicized in the local newspaper O Progresso and recognized in the institution's minutes, an aspect from which it was possible to problematize such philanthropic, charitable participation, as being somehow "interested in”, as it resulted in direct/indirect disclosures by the “benefactors” – in general, politicians and their wives. We conclude that Lar Santa Rita, between 1965 and 1982, had a significant role for being the first institution founded with a view to welcoming abandoned small children in the municipality of Dourados and region, and that its operation in the period became possible thanks to the actions and practices inscribed in figurations of power.