Cartografias da alegria: a interação da cultura afro-brasileira com as ruas da cidade de Alfredo Chaves-ES

Abstract

From the ethnographic immersion in the Macrina neighborhood, located in the city of Alfredo Chaves-ES, it is possible to notice that the joy of the parties characterizes this community and keeps Afro-Brazilian knowledge alive, even with the prevalence of European culture in that urban context. The scenery from which these collective manifestations emerge is a hill meandered through winding and narrow streets and alleys with the houses juxtaposed in strips that circle and follow the topography, an asymmetry to the architectural and urbanistic, hegemonic and European pattern, and this pattern, according to Sodré (2019), is also a means of reinforcing cultural dominance in a territory. The distancing of blacks due to territorial segregation to end of the 19th century, was a recurrent practice in Brazilian cities, there was State stimulus to the immigration of European settlers in the same space-time in which the abolition of enslaved blacks became effective. Pessali's narrative (2010) about Alfredo Chaves emphasizes a white view that legitimizes a single ethnicity (the Italians) for construction of the city and includes blacks only in excerpts about urban precariousness and the parties in the Macrina neighborhood. The interest is to bring other narratives of this territoriality, from a cultural and urban perspective, with active participation in the streets during the festivals. Through the ethnographic investigation of the collective cultural actions of the Macrina neighborhood, which territorialize the Afro-Brazilian culture in Alfredo Chaves, it is possible to research three festivals: Saint Benedict’s Feast, Our Lady of Aparecida’s Feast and Carnival. They converge on the religious theme, as they follow the Catholic liturgical calendar, but the main interest is in the role of the streets in these festivities. The thin threshold between the sacred and the profane, and between public and private spaces, the cult of black image saints, the jongo and congo of Saint Benedict, and the masked characters of the Carnival (Zé Pereiras), are manifestations that distinguish the Macrina neighborhood in the urban context of Alfredo Chaves. By observing the dynamics of the festivals in the streets of the city, it is possible to trace graphic representations of the festive movement, cartographies of joy, a way of reflecting on the political role of Afro-Brazilian culture as a driver to urban common territories.