Celebrations in (un)certain Eldorado: ethnicity and festivities in Southern Brazil (1980-2002)

Abstract

There are many festivities known nationally, all along from Southern Brazil, which seek to celebrate former motivations such as ethnicity and ‘memory sites’. Thus, Santa Catarina´s landscape is certainly a big and rich field for analysis. This article presents many reflections on the meanings of ethnic constructions that are expanded to the collective celebrations that can be seen in Santa Catarina, from analysis of the celebrations of the centenary of Colonization and the creation of the Ethnic Groups Festival in Criciúma, South State, city and region that until the 1990s celebrated the victories and defeats action engendered by mining, and that has to be recognized in Brazil as the Brazilian Capital of Charcoal. This narrative was made possible by the crossing of different types of sources: oral sources as well as official documents and writings suggested by the historiography related to the theme. Therefore, it was possible to see that the festive celebrations merge and transform the socio-cultural landscape of Santa Catarina.