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5:“What Citizenship Is This?”: Narratives of Marginality and Struggle
- Rutgers University Press
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133 5 “What Citizenship Is This?” Narratives of Marginality and Struggle Brazil is a democracy of voters, not yet a democracy of citizens. —Leslie Bethell, “Politics in Brazil” I insist on working on the issue of culture in order to show the outside society . . . because our community is marginalized. They think that here in Vera Cruz there are only marginal people, that there are only criminals . So with culture, with dance, capoeira,1 now with the elderly, we are showing that here there are not only marginal elements. —Valdete da Silva Cordeiro, personal interview Maria Ilma Ricardo’s and Valdete da Silva Cordeiro’s life experiences and social activism exemplify the multiple levels on which poor black women struggle for full citizenship in Brazil. When I interviewed both women in the city of Belo Horizonte in , they were in their fifties and had dedicated much of their lives to improving the status of poor women and children. At the time of our interview, Maria Ilma had worked in domestic service for over four decades and had been active in the local women’s movement, the black movement, and the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party, or PT) for several years. Much like Maria Ilma, Valdete was involved in multiple forms of social activism. In addition to serving as a leader in her home community, the favela Alto Vera Cruz, Valdete was also active in the local women’s movement, the black movement, and the Partido Communista do Brasil (Communist Party of Brazil, or PC do B). Both women’s life experiences provide unique vantage points for understanding processes of social and political disenfranchisement in contemporary Brazil. This chapter examines their personal and political reflections as a basis for exploring Afro-Brazilian women’s struggles for social equality and understanding the multilayered nature of citizenship in Brazil (see 134 NEGR A S IN BR A ZIL Yuval-Davis ). I view their personal narratives as significant examples of social critique and “theory in the flesh” (Moraga ; Moya ). My analysis explores the ways in which their life experiences and activism provide strategies for poor, black women to gain empowerment and claim full citizenship in work and family relationships as well as within the larger society. Cultural Citizenship and New Citizenship Maria Ilma’s and Valdete’s narratives highlight the difference between formal political citizenship and the cultural aspects of citizenship in Brazil.2 Recent conceptualizations of cultural citizenship and new citizenship provide insight into many of the issues addressed in both women’s narratives (Benmayor, Torruellas, and Juarbe ; Dagnino , ).3 Scholars of gender and cultural citizenship have argued for the importance of understanding vernacular expressions of lived experience in particular historical and structural contexts. As Rina Benmayor, Rosa Torruellas, and Ana Juarbe have noted, “cultural claims for equality need to be appreciated from the perspective of people themselves as social agents” (, ). This view of the cultural dimensions of citizenship also emphasizes the importance of recognizing that “people themselves define their issues in accordance with their own analysis of needs” and, “in doing so, people are exercising their own sense of membership and rights” (Benmayor, Torruellas, and Juarbe , ). Evelina Dagnino’s exploration of the Brazilian transition to democracy since the return to civilian rule in provides additional insights into the cultural dimensions of citizenship. Dagnino’s (, ) work posits a view of democratization that addresses cultural change within Brazilian society as a whole, not just within the political arena. This broadened view of democratization addresses the “cultural practices embodied in social relations of exclusion and inequality” (Dagnino , ). Furthermore, Dagnino notes, “In a society in which inequality is so internalized as to constitute the cultural forms through which people relate to each other in everyday life, the notion of equal rights which characterizes the idea of citizenship has to confront the authoritarian culture which permeates all social relations” (, ) Dagnino has also posited a conceptualization of new citizenship that goes beyond state-centric or legally based notions of rights. Rather than being limited to legal provisions, this conception of rights includes the “invention and creation of new rights that emerge from specific struggles and their concrete practices (Dagnino , ). A second feature of the new citizenship involves the constitution of active social subjects through their [3.21.231.245] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 22:12 GMT) “W H AT CI T IZENSHIP IS T HIS? ” 135 participation in claiming and redefining rights. The new citizenship can also be differentiated from liberal conceptions of...