Memórias das roças e bailes de puxirão no oeste do Paraná (1930 – 1980)

Abstract

This thesis discusses the memories of peasants who performed puxirão in the Western Part of the State of Paraná – Brazil, between the 1930s and 1980s. In the Oral History interviews and readings of theorists of the New Left, the actions were perceived as strategies of sociocultural existence and survival through customs. The migrations of populations from different regions of the country in the first decades of the XX century motivated the opening and occupation of land possessions in the Western Part of Paraná. This exploration of the territory was carried out in the system of partnership, with the troca de dias. The work aimed at removing vegetation, burning – coivara, planting, harvesting and raising pigs in the safra de porco. The clearings were reciprocated with food, drinks and dances. The occasions demanded learning of dances, clothing, transportation and locomotion, organization of spaces, furniture, food, sounds and security. These were moments for peasants to get to know each other, have fun and solidify social and cultural relationships. The interaction, based on the ethics of respect, allowed for meetings, flirting, dating and other approaches that were restricted in everyday life. Physical and/or symbolic violence were events that motivated the need for authorizations, surveillance and rules to minimize contradictions. Mobilizations were frequent while collective work on the land was in force. They ended with political transformations, land regularization, agricultural mechanization, predominance of large estates, migrations, rural exodus; among other manifestations of young people, through fashion and cultural consumption. Memories are understood as existence and (re)existences, in mobilizations for dances, in returns to the countryside, and in the sounds and peasant identities shared with new generations.