Dignity and Struggle: Laudelina de Campos Mello

Domestic work summarizes Brazilian history, almost like the DNA of our society. Its roots lie in slavery, the exploitation of enslaved Africans and their descendants, which founded us as a country and guided crucial structural, cultural, and subjective aspects.

Black women in the colonial period performed the most varied tasks, such as private servants, wet nurses, cooks, pantry maids, washerwomen, and housekeepers – always dedicated to the "well-being" of the manor family –, and also had their reproductive capacity captured for the multiplication of "labor". With the end of slavery, domestic work remained, according to historian Beatriz Nascimento, a “historical destination” for black women, who were, for the most part, in the category of service providers. This type of work, fundamental for the maintenance of social life, does not have its socioeconomic value recognized, and is often seen as an occupation of little prestige, not to mention the terrible conditions usually linked to it, sometimes even in situations still recognized today as analogous to slavery.

In a statement to researcher Elisabete Pinto, Laudelina comments that domestic workers were slow to be considered as a category, on the grounds that “they did not bring economy to the country”. She refutes: “We bring the economy. They go out to work, especially the middle class, they have to work outside, and then they enslave the domestic workers.”

Activist is the best definition of what Laudelina was throughout her life. Dignity in domestic work was her main struggle, and the struggle against social exploitation, a constant issue in her trajectory. Laudelina fought racial segregation since childhood, and began to be interested in collective issues in her youth, setting up her first organization at the age of 16, in Poços de Caldas. In the course of her life, she founded two domestic workers' unions, in Santos and Campinas, respectively, in 1936 and 1961. She was part of the Frente Negra Brasileira [Brazilian Black Front], the largest black organization of the twentieth century, being one of those responsible for the creation of the institution's domestic department. She also became a member of the Communist Party and of the Workers' Party. It is little known that she volunteered in World War II in order to combat the Nazi threat, integrating the Passive Anti-Aircraft Defense and the Women's Auxiliary War Organization.

Poor Boss

On May 18, 1961, Laudelina received an anonymous letter from a woman. She posed as a defender of the bosses and listed a series of arguments to show that they were the weakest link in the boss and domestic worker relationship, true martyrs, exploited by vain and cheerful women, who enjoyed their home and food without paying for it, not wanting to work, and having access to things that even the bosses did not have.

The figure of the “poor boss” is something recurrent throughout history, always reinforcing stereotypes related to domestic workers and considering an earned right as a luxury.

Starting from this episode, this nucleus brings some control devices applied to domestic workers throughout history, such as the manuals that taught the bosses how to take care of the house and “tame” their domestic workers; the police and medical records to which the workers had to submit to remain employed; and the racist newspaper ads, which Laudelina helped fight in the 1950s.

Representation

There are numerous stereotypes related to domestic workers, many of them built or maintained by the Brazilian audiovisual, especially by soap operas. Until recently, the role of the domestic worker was almost exclusively intended for black actresses. Normally, she was a character who was part of the core of the bosses and had no life of her own, no relatives, friends, or home, staying there 24 hours, ready to serve and to help tell the story of her bosses. Actresses such as Léa Garcia, Chica Xavier, Ruth de Souza, among others, had their careers mostly tied to domestic or enslaved workers. In this last option, it was also up to a white actress to play the most famous enslaved character in the Brazilian soap opera, Isaura: Slave Girl.

Black Pearl

The balls were an important part of Laudelina's struggle. At the age of 16, while still living in Poços de Caldas, she founded, along with other young black people, the Clube 13 de Maio [May 13th Club], a recreational association that organized balls and parties, since black youngsters were prevented from attending the city's white balls. When she became a unionist, the balls became a policy to promote the celebration of black beauty, self-esteem, and joy. They were also a way to raise funds to maintain the activities of the Domestic Workers Association, and also to help other local black organizations with the amounts collected. For Laudelina, it was important to occupy all the spaces that white people occupied, on an equal basis, to be entitled to everything they also owned, including luxury.

She created black dances with strict attire, in noble spaces, from Santos to Campinas. The Baile Pérola Negra [Black Pearl Ball] was the best known. However, the Baile Menina Moça [Black Debutantes' Ball] , the Miss-Simpatia Ball, the Campinas Girls' Ball, the Bonequinha do Café [Coffee Doll] contest, among others, were also her responsibility.

Dona Laudelina's balls became so well known that she began to receive invitations to hold other balls in the countryside of São Paulo.

Laudelina was also a cultural promoter, acting in the cultural and political promotion of blacks, without establishing any kind of hierarchy between the fields. The perspective of reconciling culture and politics and giving leisure a meaning of resistance has its roots both in early twentieth-century unionism, especially of anarchist origin, and in black associativism, which understood the role of culture in resistance. These initiatives also had a formative and educational role.

We can say that Laudelina's cultural activism began when she founded Clube 13 de Maio in Poços de Caldas, at the age of 16. Throughout her career, she has accomplished numerous feats, some aimed exclusively at domestic workers, others for the entire black community, and some for the general population. It is important to highlight that his actions included a broad perspective of culture, from the practices named as high culture to those defined as popular, ranging from the arts – painting, theater, poetry, instrumental music, ballet etc. – to carnival. It is worth mentioning some of these initiatives: Salão Campineiro dos Amigos das Belas Artes [Campinas Friends of Fine Arts Salon], which revealed the artist Mário de Oliveira; the Escola de Bailados Clássicos Santa Efigênia [Santa Efigênia Classical Dance School]; the association's dramatic festival; the Semana do Folclore de Campinas [Campinas Folklore Week]; an ice skating event; the promotion of the Banda Musical dos Homens de Cor [Colored Men's Band]. Her participation in Carnival is described by her: “I never went out in a parade, but I participated in the organization of two samba schools here in Campinas. I took care of the decoration. One school even won two years in a row.” These actions sought to stimulate in the black population possibilities of access to cultural goods that were denied to them due to an exclusionary racial segregation in the city of Campinas.

In Laudelina's life, the kitchen appears as a continuity of the struggle, a movement of collective resistance that wins the streets. She started cooking as a child, when she was helping her recently widowed mother make sweets and cheeses to support her family. The practice reached its peak in the traditional feijoada made by her, served to raise funds for the Union of Domestic Workers of Campinas.

In 1964, the Secretary of Education of Campinas invited her to set up “the typical Bahian cuisine” within Folklore Week. She was in charge of cooking traditional dishes, such as vatapá (an Afro-Brazilian dish made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste), angu à baiana (a cornmeal porridge topped with a rich meat stew), and xinxim de galinha (a chicken stew with dried shrimp, cashew nuts and palm oil). Her participation together with the union in the programming of the event lasted a few years. In addition, she had an acarajé tray in the Jequitibás forest, one of the largest and oldest leisure areas in Campinas, located in the central area of the city; and a little snacks shop in the stadiums of Ponte Preta and Guarani – soccer rivals from Campinas who had their delicacies in common.

Most of the time, the income she obtained from her trades financially maintained the places of activism she coordinated.

The search for a physical place permeates the struggle for dignity in Laudelina's domestic work since her personal struggle to ensure that the house that her enslaved grandmother won from her masters would not be taken from them when her mother, born free, did not allow herself to be enslaved. During the period in which she lived in Santos, she welcomed the abandoned workers, when they, due to age or illness, could no longer serve their employers and were abandoned by them. She also waged a constant struggle for a headquarters for the unions she organized. Laudelina knew that, in order to fight, it was important to have a roof over one's head.

Therefore, it is quite symbolic that she passed on her home to the Union of Domestic Workers of Campinas, so that her companions always had their own space, a place to gather and fight for their rights, "until when there is the last domestic worker in Brazil," said Laudelina.

Rest

Laudelina has always pointed out that the domestic worker is a multifaceted professional, and should be recognized as such, being an expert in many areas to do her job well: cleaning, washing, cooking, caring. These are several activities, many of them of strong physical impact, of continuous effort or even of risk to one's safety, carried out by only one person. In the case of resident workers, it is a job that does not have much control of beginning and end, since they live where they work. In the case of the day laborer, it is a job carried out in two, three houses in a week. What time does the domestic worker rest?

At this nucleus, we make an ode to rest and wish that all domestic workers can have quality time for themselves, to do what they like, or simply nothing at all.

SOCIAL HISTORY OF DOMESTIC LABOR

Queria um pincel, ganhei uma vassoura [I Wanted a Brush, I Got a Broom], Mulambö, 2018

“The tools associated with black hands are those of servitude, and the broom appears as one of its main symbols.

The title I Wanted a Brush, I Got a Broom arises from the search for individuals from poorer backgrounds to have a voice and space. Since opportunities are scarce, they must seek alternatives and, above all, resistance.

Therefore, the broom that reaches our hands becomes a trident, a weapon for resistance, a power that marks position and opens paths.”

Mulambö

Madalena Santos Reinbolt

Madalena Santos Reinbolt was a painter and embroiderer. With no access to formal education, at the age of 20 she became a domestic worker. In 1949, she worked as a cook for the architect Lota de Macedo Soares and the American poet Elizabeth Bishop, on a farm in Petrópolis, in Rio de Janeiro state. Upon returning from a trip, the employers discovered Reinbolt's talent and began to encourage her production. However, when artistic activities began to hinder her work as a cook, she was fired.

The artist used the breaks she found in her work to paint, but in 1969, for health reasons, she ended up swapping painting for tapestry, which also earned her a little more money. Her “wool paintings” were of a very elaborate and unique technique.

However, Madalena was unable to sustain her career as an artist and remained until the end of her life plying domestic labor, and received posthumous recognition, having her work exhibited at the Brazilian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale a year after her death.

Maria Auxiliadora

Maria Auxiliadora, born in Minas Gerais, moved with her family to São Paulo when she was only 3 years old. At the age of 12, she interrupted her studies and started working as a housekeeper to help her family. At 19, she worked as an embroiderer in a textile factory. Coming from a family of popular artists, at the age of 32 she decided to dedicate herself entirely to painting. In 1968, along with some members of her family, she moved to Embu das Artes, becoming part of a community that was organized around the artist and activist Solano Trindade. In 1970, she went to the center of São Paulo and began selling her works in Praça da República. There she met the physicist and art critic Mário Schenberg, who was delighted with her work and introduced her to Alan Fisher, then US consul, who organized the first solo exhibition of Maria Auxiliadora at the consulate. At the time, the newspaper Dia e Noite published a critique of her work with the headline: “Maid Replaced the Vacuum Cleaner with Brushes”. Auxiliadora created a unique painting technique, in which she mixed strands of her kinky hair in oil paint to be able to create texture in her works.

Diagnosed with cancer in 1972, she died in 1974.

Her work was recognized posthumously, with the release of a book about her published by an Italian publisher three years after her death, some solo exhibitions in Europe, and a major exhibition at MASP in 1981.

Gê Viana

In the series Atualizações traumáticas de Debret [Traumatic Updates of Debret], artist Gê Viana explores the iconographic album of French painter Jean-Baptiste Debret, who visited Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century in a project to document people, nature and Brazilian society. In his work, Debret highlighted what was later defined as the "Brazil's perverse sociability", naturalizing images of extreme violence and oppression, such as the scene shown here. In Uma senhora de algumas posses em sua casa [A Lady of Wealth in Her House], we appreciate what can be considered the representation of domestic relations inside the big house, in which the sinhá [housewife] "reigns", accompanied by enslaved women who watch over her well-being.

The artist Gê Viana proposes in Sentem para jantar [Sit Down to Have Dinner] a subversion of this colonial and slavery-related imaginary, to imagine black people sitting at the table, serving themselves with dignity. A detail that stands out in the work is the inclusion of a photo of an older black woman on the wall, as in a mention of the matriarch of that family, establishing ties of kinship that the process of enslavement erased for a significant part of the black Brazilian population.

Paulo Pedro Leal

In the painting A casa do capitão [The Captain's House], there is the moving figure of a black butler – a somewhat unusual representation – holding a tray in his hands for a white couple. In the background, composing the scene, there are a mansion and a warship. The elements of the image relate to aspects of the artist Paulo Pedro Leal's own trajectory, who worked as a housekeeper for a wealthy French family. Despite his desire to continue with art, revealed from an early age, Leal had to dedicate himself to other assignments to support himself, such as being a bricklayer's assistant and a stevedore. The artist had a strong relationship with Umbanda, becoming a pai de santo (a priest of the religion, literally "father of saint"), which that can also be seen in some of his works. In others, the artist also included the figure of the domestic worker, as in Primeira audição [First Hearing] (c. 1965), in which the central character has a privileged observation perspective of the white patronal world.

BRAZILIAN ART AND DOMESTIC WORK: AN ALMOST NATURAL LANDSCAPE

In this nucleus some important works that address domestic work in the visual arts are gathered. Throughout the history of Brazilian art, the theme appeared in the production of several artists who, in some cases, performed domestic work, such as Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Maria Auxiliadora, Arthur Bispo do Rosário, and Paulo Pedro Leal. Others just treated the activity as a motive. This is the case, for example, of the Rio de Janeiro artist Heitor dos Prazeres (1898-1966), who repeatedly had the washerwomen as a source of inspiration, in paintings that composed rural landscapes and gave importance to the work. The set of works stands out for the dignified way in which these artists represented the theme.

 
Sidney Amaral

Sidney Amaral was an artist and teacher, having worked with different media, such as painting and sculpture. The choice of materials used in his works relate closely with his incisive and poetic look at reality. In many of his works, Amaral used noble materials, such as bronze and marble, to build objects considered of lower value, typical of everyday life. Another particularity of his works was to be based on his own image, with self-portraits that have his body – the body of a black man – as the locus of conflict. In Panelada, Amaral combines these two characteristics, creating a delicate watercolor that amalgamates his self-portrait as a support for kitchen utensils: pot, frying pan, milk pot, cooking ladle. The gesture establishes tension by placing subjects and objects in the same place, showing that, in many contexts, black people and objects are equivalent.

LAUDELINA AS ACTIVIST

Association of Domestic Workers of Santos

On July 8, 1936, the Association of Domestic Workers of Santos was founded. The association aimed both to protect domestic workers and to do charitable and political work, extending to other socially and economically discriminated groups. The institution even had a placement agency for female workers, literacy course, legal department, medical and dental department. After starting in a space provided by the Church, next to the parish of Santa Terezinha, the association later got its own headquarters, a house with a ballroom where balls, parties and other cultural activities were organized that helped to maintain it economically.

In 1937, the association was closed due to the establishment of the Estado Novo, being reopened only in 1946, when all unions resumed their activities.

Association of Domestic Workers of Campinas

On May 18, 1961, the Association of Domestic Workers of Campinas was founded. The initial mobilization was done from door to door, with the distribution of leaflets in the most affluent areas of the city, where it was known that there was a greater concentration of domestic workers. Laudelina's idea with this association was to politicize domestic workers and assist them in daily labor conflicts, but also to demand the legalization of domestic work with the competent bodies. Literacy classes remained a priority, because, according to her, by learning to read, workers could better understand labor legislation and get better at claiming their rights. Laudelina was also concerned about the loneliness of the workers, who often lived in the places of labor and did not have a social life. So, in addition to formal and political education, she also organized cultural and leisure activities, such as picnics, balls, and parties aimed at the category.

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In 1968, Laudelina withdrew from the Campinas Union for diverging from the management of the institution's new board of directors. For 14 years, she remained outside the domestic workers' movement, returning only in 1982, when she was 78 years old, at the hands of Annunciação Marqueza dos Santos de Almeida, her companion from community work groups in the city, who yet until then did not know that she had been the founder of the association.

In this video, we have the testimonies of members of Casa Laudelina, who formed the union and met Laudelina during this period. Among the interviewees is Marqueza, who unfortunately passed away shortly after that interview.

WORLD WAR II

In an interview with Elisabete Pinto, Laudelina says she decided to enlist when she read the Blue Book, as the autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, written by Hitler in 1925, was known in Brazil. "It was written in the Blue Book that he would eliminate all races that were not Aryan, especially the black race would be eliminated. So it took me, it brought a revolt inside me, so I decided to enlist to serve the homeland.” Laudelina then enlisted in the Passive Anti-Aircraft Defense and fought as best she could at the time for the country.

World War II

In May 1942, Getúlio Vargas created the Passive Anti-Aircraft Defense through Decree-Law 4,098, according to which anyone of both sexes who was over 16 years old could act in an emergency as a civilian during the war, especially in the event of an air attack. Shortly after, groups of Passive Anti-Aircraft Defense Volunteers were created, with a greater focus on women's participation, as men were being drafted into the military. Months after its formation, the group was renamed the Women's War Auxiliary Organization (WWAO), moving from the scope of influence of Aeronautics to the Army. The female response to the voluntary call was immense. In São Paulo, three battalions of FAGs were created, as they were popularly called, totaling 1,600 women. In Santos, two battalions were formed, and Laudelina served in the 1st Battalion, enlisting in 1942 under number 120 (Fag.120). According to Laudelina, she was the only black woman in her battalion. In Passive Anti-Air Defense, she took the advanced sentry and blackout courses, an activity she performed as a FAG until the end of the war.

World War II/blackout

One of the functions of the volunteers, later FAGs, was the exercise of blackout. Armed with whistle and flashlight, the FAGs patrolled coastal streets and houses to ensure that no lights were on, so that possible enemy ships would not have any land signs. In some regions of the country, there were only blackout exercises, lasting up to one hour, so that the population knew what to do in case the safety measure needed to be implemented. In Santos, however, as can be seen in some newspaper articles reproduced here, the continued blackout was instituted as a security measure. The public lighting of the beaches and streets was turned off, preventing the operation of luminous signs, as well as the movement of people. Laudelina worked actively in this labor in Santos, working, for example, in the Fort of Itaipu, protecting the cannons. In some reports, Laudelina says that, exercising this function, she even got shot and that she was called to be a sentry in the cemetery of Santos, where she allegedly discovered a German spy, disguised as a nun, who kept a communication radio hidden there, supposedly passing on confidential information.

Brasília, 1966

“Pleased to meet you! So, are you the terror of the Campinas bosses?”, said the then Minister of Labor and Social Security, Jarbas Passarinho, in 1966, when he met Laudelina in Brasilia, along with other unionists. Trade unionists were demanding compliance with laws such as wage replacement and family wage, while domestic workers were demanding the right to retirement and pension. What seemed contradictory at the time, after all, was an attempt at dialogue with a minister appointed by the military in a dictatorial context, revealed the dimension of the activist's realpolitik, who always sought to travel through different political spectrums with the purpose of defending the cause of domestic workers.

I Congress of Young Domestic Workers

The First Congress of Young Domestic Employees took place from January 10 to 23, 1961, at the Catarina Labouré Social Center, in Rio de Janeiro, and brought together about 20 workers from various regions of the country. The meeting sought to move the category, defend its rights and regulate the profession.

The congress was organized by the Juventude Operária Católica [Catholic Working Youth] (JOC), a progressive sector of the Catholic Church, founded in 1932 by priest Joseph Cardijn, who, coming from a working family, sought to approach the working class with the aim of improving young workers' lives through evangelizing action and the formation of a critical conscience.

The youth gathered local domestic workers in each state, selected representations and paid the costs of their coming to Rio de Janeiro, in order to talk about the regional problems of the category. The meeting was so important that some associations emerged from it. The schedule also included classes in home economics and healthy eating.

V Congress of Domestic Workers

In 1985, three years after Laudelina's return to the union, the V Congress of Domestic Workers took place in Olinda, in Pernambuco state. It was the first congress held after the country's political opening and marked the creation of a national team of representatives from all states, responsible for a regional articulation that could nationally structure all existing domestic workers' organizations.

The event was attended by Dom Hélder Câmara, who celebrated a mass in thanksgiving at the event. Archbishop emeritus of Olinda and Recife, Dom Hélder was known for being a great defender of human rights during the Brazilian military dictatorship.

In one account, Laudelina, then already 78, says that, in a conversation with the archbishop, she said she hoped that God would not let her die without seeing the association become a professional union, a dream that would come true in 1988, when the new federal constitution was promulgated.

VI Congress of Domestic Workers (Campinas, 1989)

In 1989, the VI Congress of Domestic Workers was held in the district of Nova Veneza, municipality of Sumaré, near Campinas, under the responsibility of the Union of Domestic Workers of Campinas. With the theme “Union, organization, struggle”, the event was attended by 157 workers. Laudelina spoke at the opening of the event about the history of the association and about the pressures suffered in the profession.

“And the black worker, what's made of her?”, Lélia Gonzalez

Lélia Almeida Gonzalez (1935-1994) was an anthropologist and militant of the black movement, an essential figure for the establishment of black feminist thought. What is rarely said about her is that she too, as a child, was a babysitter. The author revealed how a historical continuum has developed in the labor occupation of black women since slavery, which relegated them to certain professional occupations.

In the newspaper Mulherio, an organ of the alternative feminist press, Gonzalez had a column, in which she articulated the racial debate with class and gender, emphasizing the issue of exploitation: “Black women remain the most exploited and oppressed sector of Brazilian society, since they suffer triple discrimination (social, racial, and sexual).”

BLACK PEARL

Black Pearl Ball

The Baile Pérola Negra [Black Pearl Ball] was the first organized by Laudelina in Campinas, being the first ball of its kind in Brazil, according to an article published by O Cruzeiro magazine. The ball took place in May 1957, at the Municipal Theater of Campinas, designed by Laudelina, José de Souza, and Jair Clemente, and was partially sponsored by the newspaper O Diário do Povo. The ball was aimed at black people, but white people were allowed to watch it, in the cabins and on the friezes. In the hall, only black people were allowed, and strict attire was mandatory.

Twenty young black women were invited as candidates. The selection considered, in addition to beauty, the moral background and intellectual degree of each of them. Nine semi-finalists were selected. With the vote of the public, five finalists were reached: Marcília Gama, Cícera de Oliveira, Maria de Fátima de Andrade, Odete Amaral, and Lucila Duarte. Each followed its campaign of selling votes, which were deposited in an urn in the building where the newspaper operated. Every weekend the votes were counted, and then reported by the press. The big champion was Marcília Gama. The songs heard in this room were played at the balls of the time and can be heard in full in this QR Code.

Black Debutantes Ball: Young Girl

The Baile Menina Moça [Young Girl Ball] was a famous debutante ball that took place in Campinas, in which, however that black families could not participate. Dona Laudelina then organized the city's first black debutante ball. The Municipal Theater, where the traditional white debutante ball took place, did not want to rent the table for an all-black ball. Therefore, Laudelina and others made a protest in the local newspapers, and the theater ceded the rent.

The ball took place on October 26, 1957, at the Ginásio Campineiro de Regatas, and actress Ruth de Souza was the godmother of the debutantes. That night, young people were presented not only from Campinas, but also from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santos, Piracicaba, Jundiaí, São Carlos, among other cities. The ceremony maintained customs similar to those of the white dances of the time, with the exchange of low shoes for heeled shoes, and with the typical clothes of debutantes parties.

Debate between Abdias Nascimento and Rachel de Queiroz

The Black Debutantes Ball yielded a heated debate in the press, confronting two positions: that of journalist and writer Rachel de Queiroz and that of activist, writer, and visual artist Abdias Nascimento. The controversy began with the Queiroz’s text in her column in the magazine O Cruzeiro, in which she argued that the existence of exclusively black spaces was also discriminatory, since, in Brazil, the problem of color was intertwined with the class problem and the racial issue was small, and there was even legislation to combat it.

In response to her text, Nascimento, who participated in the dance, expressed his opposition to the argument of reverse racism. For him, it was necessary to affirm pride and belonging: “Black people need to be proud of being black. It needs to come true. This dance for young black women is liberation by catharsis.” The reverberation of the ball and Abdias' response were reproduced by the press from various parts of Brazil.

"BETWEEN THE BLACK MOTHER AND THE TERROR OF THE BOSSES"

After settling in Campinas, Laudelina noticed that newspaper ads in search of domestic workers made a racial distinction, pointing out a preference for white women or even women of another nationalities. Outraged by these announcements, Laudelina decided to go to the newsroom of the newspaper Correio Popular to protest. There, she met Bráulio Mendes Nogueira, director of the section. When asked about the prejudice, Nogueira replied that the ads were already ready, and they were obliged to publish them. Touched by the issue, he decided to ally himself with Laudelina's struggle. The next day, there were no more mentions of race or nationality in the ads.

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With the abolition of slavery, there were several changes in the relationship between "masters" – now bosses – and their "servants". Although in practice labor relations had not changed so much, workers were no longer under the constant surveillance of their bosses, inhabiting other spaces in the city. The lack of social responsibility with the newly freed helped in the process of creating spaces on the margins, which ended up being stigmatized as promiscuous and unhygienic environments. The bosses feared that the “maids” would bring illnesses and teach their children bad behaviors. Pedagogical attempts to “domesticate” and “civilize” domestic workers emerged in the republican period, under the pretext of teaching women how to manage the home and family. The manuals argued that housekeepers only “were good enough” under the supervision of their employers.

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The stereotypes created that domestic workers were lazy, malicious, envious, and even carried diseases, that is, people who should be instructed and supervised not to tarnish the “good homes”, also generated the procedure of police and medical records for bosses' control. An example was the creation of the Domestic Employees Registration Service, in São Paulo, in 1946, a register of registration and inspection of health and criminal records, in addition to monitoring occurrences during work and the reason for dismissal from previous jobs. The Association of Domestic Workers of Campinas, after the 1964 coup, came under the tutelage of the city hall, having its political-educational proposal directed by the Municipal Social Welfare Secretariat. Among the changes implemented, which sought to depoliticize the institution, was a more paternalistic character, with the direct participation of the employers, and with the inclusion of the police record statement and the health card in the registration form of the future partner of the association.

A negação do Brasil [Denying Brazil]

The documentary A negação do Brasil [Denying Brazil] (2000) produced by director Joel Zito Araújo, was based on his doctoral research carried out at the University of São Paulo. In addition to the documentary, the research resulted in a book of the same name, released in the same year. The work analyzes Brazilian soap operas from 1963 to 1997, emphasizing how blacks were represented and how they influenced the perception of the racial debate in the country. The work was built through archival images, narration and testimonials.

"Pátria minha" [My Homeland], Sueli Carneiro

In 1994, Rede Globo aired, in its prime time, the soap opera Pátria minha [My Homeland]. In one of the chapters, the businessman played by Tarcisio Meira accuses the gardener played by Alexandre Moreno of having stolen something from him. The words and accusations of Meira's character were marked by racial offenses, and the scene exposed racism explicitly, with all its dimension of violence, in addition to perpetuating the stereotype of domestic workers as dishonest people.

The scene caused outrage, and black movement organizations publicly responded to the event. The philosopher and activist Sueli Carneiro, at the time executive coordinator of Geledés, Instituto da Mulher Negra [Black Women’s Institute], filed a judicial notification and wrote the text presented here, published in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo at the time. Her discomfort was in the passive characterization of the black character in the face of the violence he suffered. "This very modern attitude of the broadcaster and its authors to face the problem of racism is based on archaic and outdated images of blacks, which even at the level of official historiography are being criticized and revised. It is impossible for the people who work at Globo not to know it.”

Other black institutions manifested themselves, and Rede Globo and the authors of the soap opera, in the face of the pressure, recognized the criticism. As a reparation, a scene was included in the soap opera in which Chica Xavier's character rejects racism and praises black self-esteem.

 
Mirtes Renata Santana de Souza

In June 2020, a case shocked Brazil: the boy Miguel fell from the 9th floor of a luxury building in Recife, as a result of the deep neglect of his mother's employer, criminally indicted for abandonment of a child resulting in death, a case still pending in court.

The situation deeply impacted many sectors of Brazilian society that stood in solidarity with Mirtes de Souza, Miguel's mother. Later, in response to everything she had suffered, she decided to turn her pain into action and started to study Law, to support other domestic workers who go through violent situations, such as the one she lived through. At this moment, Mirtes is in the final phase of her graduation, writing her final paper, which we display here on the cover.

 
Solemn Session – Homage to the National Day of the Domestic Worker
Representative Benedita da Silva

On April 29, 2014, the former senator of the Republic, former state governor and current federal representative Benedita da Silva climbed to the podium of the House of Representatives wearing a domestic worker's uniform, celebrating the category for their day. “The way to honor them was to be here in this uniform that I once wore.” Benedita performed domestic work at a very young age, before being able to complete her degree in social work. In the 1980s, she was elected councilwoman and later representative, having been, according to Laudelina, the representative who fought the most for the class framework of domestic workers. She is the author of the Constitutional Amendment Proposal of the Domestic Workers, approved during the term of President Dilma Rousseff in 2013, which guarantees to domestic workers rights already guaranteed to other workers.

 
Title of Honorary Doctor to Creuza Maria Oliveira

On November 24, 2023, Creuza Maria Oliveira received an honorary doctorate from the Institute of Psychology of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). This is a historic milestone, as it is the first grant of such a title to a domestic worker. Creuza is an important political activist, trade unionist and former councilwoman in Salvador. She was the first president of the Domestic Workers Union of Bahia and is the honorary president of the National Federation of Domestic Workers (Fentrad).

Creuza began to perform domestic work as a child, when she was handed over, still very small, to a family that entrusted her with the care of children and household chores. She worked for some families without pay, in exchange for a roof and food. At the age of 20, she had access to a group of domestic workers who met to discuss better working conditions, then starting her activism in the category. Among her actions, she contributed to the Brazilian government adopting Convention 189, on domestic work, of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

 
I, the housekeeper: the modern slave quarters are the housekeeper's rooms

On July 19, 2016, historian Joyce da Silva Fernandes, a rapper known as Preta-Rara, decided to share on her Facebook page an account of her time working as a domestic worker. Accompanied by the hashtag #EuEmpregadaDomestica [MeDomesticWorker], she encouraged other workers to also share their testimonies on the network. The post achieved a lot of visibility and feedback, causing Joyce to create an email, in which she received reports later shared on a fanpage. The hashtag generated thousands of reports on the internet, shedding light on the violence that almost always happened inside the houses of the bosses.

In 2019, Preta-Rara released the book exposed here, compiling some still unpublished reports from those she has received since 2016.

LAUDELINA CULTURAL ARTICULATOR

I Salão Campineiro dos Amigos das Belas Artes [Campinas Friends of Fine Arts Salon]

In the early 1960s, Laudelina, Bráulio Mendes Nogueira, dr. José Alberto and Mário de Oliveira organized the 1st Salão Campineiro dos Amigos das Belas Artes [Campinas Friends of Fine Arts Salon], in the lobby of the Carlos Gomes Theater. The idea came from Laudelina, who wanted to organize an exhibition that promoted the appreciation of black self-esteem and culture. The show featured several artistic languages, including visual arts, poetry, and music.

Laudelina was the curator and personally invited each artist to participate. We know that poet Genny Baptista, musician José Neves Balthazar, and painter Mário de Oliveira participated in the salon. The event, which intended to show black artists from Campinas, also had participants from Piracicaba and Jundiaí.

 
Banda Musical dos Homens de Cor [Colored Men's Band]

Founded in 1933 by maestro João de Oliveira Sebastião Marques, the Corporação Musical Campineira dos Homens de Cor [Campinas Colored Men's Musical Corporation] is a traditional band from Campinas, created with the purpose of providing black men with an environment where they could express themselves artistically, at a time when the racial segregation of the city made it difficult for black people to participate in social activities. Sebastião turned his own house into a cultural venue and, together with friends Benedito Evangelista Xavier, Venâncio Pompeu, and conductor Alvares Jorge de Oliveira, began to teach music, thus starting the band's activities.

Laudelina had the practice of using the money collected at the balls to maintain the association and in local black organizations. The band has benefited from this aid a few times. On the 25th anniversary of the band's foundation, Laudelina organized a tribute to the corporation, even getting a new uniform for the musicians, thanks to her connections.

The band exists to this day and is now open to all interested people, regardless of gender or color.

 
Mário de Oliveira

Born in 1927, in the city of Lins, São Paulo, Mário de Oliveira was a painter, trained by the Associação Paulistas de Belas-Artes [São Paulo Association of Fine Arts] in the 1950s, who dedicated himself to several genres, including Brazilian landscape.

His life intersected with Laudelina's when she saw him painting the wall of a butcher shop and, impressed by the artistic quality of his work, asked why he was doing that activity. Oliveira introduced himself and told about his training, and Laudelina arranged his meeting with Bráulio Mendes Nogueira, who took him to the Escola de Belas-Artes de Campinas [School of Fine Arts in Campinas], where he would start teaching shortly after.

In 1960, Laudelina organized the I Salão Campineiro dos Amigos das Belas Artes [Campinas Friends of Fine Arts Salon], in which Mário de Oliveira presented some works. A few months later, he presented his first solo exhibition at the Teatro Municipal Carlos Gomes, in Campinas. With these two exhibitions and working as a teacher, Mário gained prominence in the artistic world and participated in dozens of exhibitions in the following years, in cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which earned him several awards.

In the 1970s, he moved to Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais state, with his wife – who was a member of the Association of Domestic Workers of Campinas – and dedicated himself to the city's landscapes and baroque paintings, as is the case with the photographs we see here. Oliveira called himself a "classical painter" and had a deep attachment to figurative art, having consolidated a career of more than 50 years.

 
Escola de Bailados Clássicos Santa Efigênia [Santa Efigênia Classical Dance School]

In 1955, Laudelina founded the Escola de Bailados Clássicos Santa Efigênia [Santa Efigênia Classical Dance School] in Campinas. A dance school where classes on classical ballets, tap dancing, modern dances, popular dances, and theater were offered. There were classes for boys, girls, and children and, although it was directed to black people, it ended up having white students due to its repertoire of classes.

Laudelina had to look for a black teacher in São Paulo, because white teachers in Campinas refused to teach black people. Léo Tigre came to Campinas three times a week, twice to teach in white schools and once for Santa Efigênia.

The mayor at the time, Sérgio Rodrigues, provided a house and some furniture for the school to take place. As the house was very large, in addition to the classes offered, it became a place where black people could socialize and share knowledge. Over time, other people incorporated into the house and began offering music lessons. Laudelina also organized dances and matinees: it was, according to her, a “permanent fair”.

COOKING: A GESTURE OF STRUGGLE

Arthur Bispo do Rosário

Arthur Bispo do Rosário was an important Brazilian artist, known for his meticulous work of re-elaborating the material world, moved by the call to inventory the world for the Judgement Day. What is little commented is that Bispo also performed domestic work, having been what is popularly known as the “handyman”, that is, the person who works for a certain family and performs all the tasks. Bishop became a "handyman" when he went to live in the house of the lawyer who represented him in the case against the company in which he worked and dismissed him improperly after an occupational accident that injured him. This accident also ended the young boxing career that Bispo had started in his period in the Navy, where he studied at the apprenticeship school and even got enlisted. All these events preceded his medical hospitalization process due to the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.

The works of Bispo selected for the exhibition are related to domestic work, rest and war.

"TO CONTINUE, FOR FULL FRUITION: UNTIL WHEN THERE IS THE LAST DOMESTIC WORKER IN BRAZIL"

Florada [Blossom] and Autorretrato com anjos [Self-Portrait with Angels] are the works of artists Maria Glória Nogueira and Maria Auxiliadora da Silva, respectively. In addition to sharing their first names, their trades – painting and housework – also coincide, although they have very different trajectories and poetics.

Nogueira discovered painting during the covid pandemic in 2021, when she informally began painting. She started her production in small dimensions and moved to large supports. Since then, she has dedicated herself simultaneously to painting and to the craft of domestic work. Her paintings are marked by the expressive use of a vivid palette of colors, combined with a vigorous rhythm of the brushstrokes.

Auxiliadora dedicated herself to several themes, including self-portrait. In Self-Portrait with Angels, we can see angels bringing brushes, paints, paintings and a garland of flowers to the artist, who was already quite sick at that time. Auxiliadora painted until her death two years later.

The trajectories of the two artists condense possibilities often denied to domestic workers, which we want to claim here, namely the right to art.

 
"Boa Esperança" [Good Hope], Emicida

Son of Mrs. Jacira, visual artist, writer, and former domestic worker, Brazilian writer and rapper Leandro Roque de Oliveira, or Emicida, as he is known, is the author of the song “Boa Esperança” [Good Hope]. The song's videoclip presents a perspective of radical liberation of domestic workers who rise up against the mistreatment, abuse and harassment of their bosses in the mansions where they work, starting a national mutiny. The inspiration for the audiovisual production came from exchanges with domestic workers from an occupation in the center of São Paulo, who also acted in the video, like his mother. In several interviews, Emicida commented on difficult situations he and his mother went through: "A person paying you for a service does not mean that in any instance that this person owns you."

The dystopian perspective that the short film builds echoes a fear that has hovered among Brazilian elites since the slave period, that enslaved people would rise up, a fear fueled by the Haitian Revolution, which, in the 18th century, expelled French colonizers and ended slavery in the country.

 
Clementina de Jesus

In a moment of intimacy, caught by the affectionate look of photographer Walter Firmo, Clementina de Jesus (1901-1987) rests in the sun. The artist, who was one of the greatest Brazilian singers, stood out for her unmistakable voice tone and for her repertoire deeply linked to Afro-Brazilian culture. She began her career in the 1930s, with insertions in the carnival, having participated in the choir of female figures that accompanied the artist and musician Heitor dos Prazeres. It was only in the 1960s that Clementina achieved recognition.

With her presence at the exhibition, we celebrate numerous Brazilian singers who performed domestic work for many years before being recognized as singers: Jovelina Pérola Negra, Elza Soares, Virgínia Rodrigues, Deise Tigrona, Preta-Rara, among others. In the QR Code below, you can listen to a playlist where these artists are gathered.

 
Carolina Maria de Jesus 

Carolina Maria de Jesus was an internationally known writer since the release of her book Quarto de despejo [Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus (US); Beyond All Pity (UK)], based on her diaries written between 1955 and 1960, when she lived in the Canindé slum, in São Paulo. There, she recounts her everyday life, affected by deep economic difficulties, while at the same time making philosophical reflections about her own existence.

The book success has given fame to the writer, who was guest of honor of countless social gatherings, among which several debutante balls of young black girls, that took place in black clubs in the city of São Paulo and its adjacencies and sought to present notable black figures.

Carolina also plied domestic labor. In an interview, she mentioned that she once let the beans burn because she had her “mind on poetry”, not paying attention to work.