Memórias e apagamentos da trajetória de Oxum: uma surda negra em Caçapava do Sul

Abstract

The proposition of giving voice to the memories of Oxum, our interlocutor who represents the voice of so many other deaf black people that echoes through waters that are not always calm, brings in this land of Caçapava do Sul, an invitation to listen. From his trajectory through bilingual education to the path to access it, countless absences, erasures and invisibilities are placed in this discourse. A call for discussion about the teaching practices that were previously carried out and the current perspectives implemented in the education of the deaf. Intersecting blackness and deafness, the aim was to investigate how this identity trait is meant and constituted in the local black territory and whether this space of coexistence, culture, resistance, confrontation and education is also crossed. Through qualitative research and a Case Study, it was decided to use narrative interviews to collect data. For the analysis of the collected data, the choice was for an interpretative perspective, in the terms of Clifford Geertz (2008). Initially, we sought to create an understanding of what the black territories would be within the Caçapavano territory and for this task, we brought geographic and historical data about the city, and then we began to present the places where Afro culture takes place with its rights preserved. In these spaces, henceforth in this work, black territories, we meet our Oxum, the central character of this study, donor of the words and statements, in which we seek to corroborate the theory that her educational trajectory would be the intersection of several crossings. And how much each of them influences the others and the group as a whole, that is, women, black and deaf people. Following the studies, based on the readings of the theoretical framework, we saw through the analysis of the interviews with Oxum that many more universes collide, of those that drove our initial premise and were already mentioned previously, these being women, black women, mothers, daughters , deaf, worker, student, which changed our thinking that needed to be adapted to this reality. The analysis of the interviews and their responses, which were partly expected, showed us that what we had as an initial idea did not apply in its entirety. And that from its erasures gives us light to another perspective and to the need to observe other problems. From their silencing, the subjectivities that scream to be “heard” within the education of the deaf, the lacks and weaknesses of local, regional education at the macro level. It can be concluded from their memories that the education and teaching of deaf people, focused on a monocultural linguistic perspective that excludes other cultures and disregards other experiences and social markers, can be as oppressive as epistemicides and overt racism. In this way, the Oxum trajectory can be an inspiration to rethink educational practices and policies, seeking to ensure that all voices and identities are represented and respected in this process.