De remeiro à vapozeiro: memória e trabalho nas margens do São Francisco (1940 – 1981)

Abstract

This research analyzes the workers of steamships that navigated the São Francisco River. What interests us is to raise the experience of the men who joined the vapors to problematize the relationship they established with the river, with the population of the region, and trade between them, particularly in matters relating to the work, to show how the backcountry riverside progressed in the functions of the river, but kept with the same intense relationship of tradition and memory. The geographical area in which the object of investigation is inserted is therefore the navigable stretch of the São Francisco River, that is, the route between Pirapora (Minas Gerais) and Juazeiro (Bahia). There steamships and barges traveled for years, writing the history of the towns and cities that are part of the middle San Francisco. Together, these cities have a close connection with the activities related to the river. The time frame selected for the research was between the years 1940 to 1981, as it is the period when occurred the heyday and decay of steamships. The sources used were reports, technical reports, reports of travelers to the Middle San Francisco, publications of memorialist, testimonials collected in interviews and documents from the Navigation Company of the SanFrancisco River. The concepts of memory and work were used to highlight the memories of vapozeiros as part of the history of river navigation San Francisco