Dark History of Our Lady of the Slash-Knife

Abstract

In the Garden of Flowers, over the ashes of the old Slash-Knife District, live the daughters – or granddaughters and great-granddaughters – of slaves and native South-American women “lassoed in the woods”. Many consider themselves also to be the daughters of Our Lady. The juxtaposition of maternal lineages may produce a montage-like effect. Do gestures of Indians and slaves flash in the bodily innervations of Our Lady? Signs of “dark histories” of Our Lady are found in subterranean regions of symbols. On this terrain, the study of historical patterns of settlement in Piracicaba, a city of the interior of São Paulo, may require a certain type of archaeology, involving a double dislocation, from bandeirante explorers to Our Lady, and from Our Lady to Indian and slave women “lassoed in the woods”. In these substrata the gesture of a boia-fria woman who “cut a man into pieces” stirs up the shadows of a nation.

Keywords

• Gênero
• Nossa Senhora
• Mulher abjeta
• Teatro da crueldade
• “Boias-frias”