Trajetória e memória de um imigrante italiano: Antônio Ceretta (1877-1943)

Abstract

The present work, entitled "Trajectory and Memory of an Italian Immigrant: Antônio Ceretta (1877 - 1943)" is inserted within the "Memory and Heritage" Research Line of the Postgraduate Course in History of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (PPGH- UFSM). In this Line are the researches that undertake reflections around the historically constituted memory. The present research receive fictitious support through CAPES / DS scholarship. The research consisted of understanding, through the construction of the historical trajectory of the Italian immigrant Antônio Ceretta, his memory impressions about the process of immigration and Italian colonization in the region of the Quarta Colônia in Rio Grande do Sul. His memories are set in six handwritten notebooks about the development of the communities in which he lived, and whose emphasis is on the structuring of religious spaces, especially the colonists' efforts to establish priests residing in the community of Vale Vêneto and their role as teacher and catechist in the community of São João do Polêsine. His manuscripts were written in the early 1940‘s, following a context of broad political, economic and social transformations in southern Brazil, crossing different political regimes, Brazil Empire, the First Republic and the Dictatorship of Estado Novo. His memoirs show a continuation of conflicts arising from the process of Italian unification that preceded the migratory process and increasing intervention of the Brazilian State in the areas of colonization from the updating of the Catholic Church and the school process in an effort to integrate Italian immigrants into the Brazilian national culture. In his memoirs are emphasized the deep religiosity of Italian immigrants and the daily routine of hard working. Despite the context of the production of his written memoirs, the Estado Novo and the nationalization campaign, his impressions do not seem to indicate a hostile relationship with the State and demonstrate the role of the Catholic Church as a protective repository of immigrant memory in a context of denial of foreign origins, making the reinforcement of Catholic religiosity in the zones of Italian colonization the element of national assimilation. In order to carry out this work, the manuscripts of the immigrant Antônio Ceretta were used as sources in the AHPNSC, records of payments and expenses of staff and iconographic material of the AHMCS, photos, writings, genealogies and reports of the CPG-NP besides bibliography on the theme of Italian immigration in the region of the Quarta Colônia.