Nacionalização das escolas étnicas polonesas do Rio Grande do Sul (1918-1942)

Abstract

This research aims to analyze how nacionalização processes, produced in the period from 1918 to 1942, configured or extinguished the ethnic schools of Polish communities in Rio Grande do Sul, observing the reactions and actions of different institutions in their ethnic identity process, present in this historical context of imposing construction of a nationality model. The problem comes down to understanding how the school process of Polish immigrants was configured and organized, from the reconstruction of Poland on the political map of Europe, in the face of the nationalist cultural imposition, better known as the Campanha de Nacionalização, with restrictions on ethnic school organizations. Through the theoretical assumptions of Cultural History, by authors such as Chartier (1988) and Certeau (2011) and Barth's (1998) understanding of ethnicity, I consider it important to pay attention to the ethnic school processes experienced in the context, after the implementation of the Estado Novo in 1937 and how such practices were perceived and felt. Methodologically, I understand the construction of historiography as a systematic organization of sources, according to the questions and research objectives, in a limited time and space. Among the different documents mobilized for the construction of this thesis, are consular documents; correspondence from Polish societies and ethnic organizations; articles from the ethnic press, as well as images and school documents of Polish immigrants. I argue that the affirmation of Brazilianness in the Era Vargas and the constitution of a Polishness, influenced by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were important elements to configure teaching activities, during the interwar period, resulting in the extinction or transformation of ethnic schools in these communities in Rio Grande do Sul. It was a non-homogeneous process of redefinition of ethnic culture and the constitution of the symbolic, in its sense of value and in a dimension of production of belongings, here, in particular, of Polish immigrants. In this environment, there was an increase in the relations between the construction of Polishness and the constitution and conduct of school processes, included in a political order, through the monitoring of the Polish government. The construction and maintenance of cultural practices by Polish immigrants enabled the formation of several institutions even before Poland's independence, such as associations, societies and schools. For Poles, the ethnic school process was a marker of Polishness, synonymous with resistance to theinstitutionalized processes of nationalization, coupled with the feeling of belonging, which contributed to the ethnic culture being formulated and constituted in a certain way. As a result of the Vargas nationalization campaign, the ethnic school education of Polish immigrants was stopped by the moral imposition of an ideal of Brazilianness that resulted in the transformation and closure of schools and restrictions on the use of ethnic culture.