Os trabalhadores roceiros e as ressignificações do viver: costume, seca e sisal em Araci-Bahia (1953-1984)

Abstract

This research investigated the Araci’sroceirosworkers and the resignifications of living between 1953 and 1984. During this period, developmental actions, introduced by the state with the discourse of improving the daily life of the city, marked the lives of workers. Thus, the roceiro world and its customs were conceived from the theoretical-methodological contributions of the historian E. P. Thompson. At first the contextualization of the making of the place, community relations such as the “Cattle Junta” and the “Stolen Ox” and the contradictions of the usual daily life were contextualized. In the second moment, the performance of the Department of Drought Works and the construction of Poço Grande weir were analyzed, as a possibility to remedy the central problem of the city: water. Finally, we investigated the interference and accommodation of sisal monoculture in workers' lives, especially the complexity of the first processing performed in the fields, the trauma of mutilations in contact with the defibrillator, the reaction to the overexploitation of roceiros' work in the trade union organization and the struggle for the granting of full retirement in the Sisal Mutilados Movement. The analysis performed in this study allowed us to assert that the workers, therefore, were not oblivious to the changes, as they reacted, demanded, fought and won rights.