Leticia Marques (Rio de Janeiro State University): "Miscegenation as an insoluble debt: among stories, facts, and artefacts of the Baron of Juparanã's family"
Dates: | 20 November 2024 |
Times: | 17:00 - 18:30 |
What is it: | Seminar |
Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
Speaker: | Leticia Marques |
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Part of the University of Manchester's Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies' research seminar series:
Wed 20 Nov 2024, 5pm (UK time). This event will be in person, in Samuel Alexander Building, room A214. It can be followed online here: https://zoom.us/j/95860231166
Abstract: This presentation builds on my doctoral thesis—an ethnography examining the relationships between the descendants of the Baron of Juparanã and his five enslaved women. In an attempt to secure salvation for his soul, twelve years before the abolition of slavery and shortly before his death, the Baron bequeathed a farm to his twenty-five children, born in the Paraíba Valley, Rio de Janeiro. Drawing on the narratives of my interlocutors, alongside archival and photographic sources, I explore how this history is retold by these descendants, and their ongoing efforts to sustain the image of the Baron of Juparanã as a “Good Man.” This is maintained even in the face of clear evidence of the violence of slavery and the abuse of the enslaved women from whom these descendants also trace their lineage. In this context, the process of miscegenation, and the inheritance granted to the Baron’s illegitimate children, facilitated the erasure of violent histories, bound by what I term an “insoluble debt.”
Leticia Marques is an Honorary Fellow at INARRA research group (Image, Narratives and Cultural Practices), Rio de Janeiro State University.
Speaker
Leticia Marques
Role: Honorary Fellow
Organisation: INARRA research group (Image, Narratives and Cultural Practices), Rio de Janeiro State University
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