BLACK FEMALE INSCRITURA OF HELENA DO SUL (1940-2009):

THE KNOTS OF AS FILHAS DAS LAVADEIRAS (2002)

Abstract

When we list a list of works authored by Brazilian women, especially in the last twenty years, we notice two gaps: women from the southern region of the country; and black women. When both categories converge, the silencing becomes striking to the point that we believe there are no black writers from Rio Grande do Sul. However, there are works authored by black women in Rio Grande do Sul and it is from this statement that I seek to understand the mechanisms that try to silence and delegitimize these works and authors. Thinking about other tools of analysis (LORDE, 2019), casting the black female inscription (QUADROS, 2023) as a central point of discussion and in dialogue with writing (EVARISTO, 2005; 2007), with Dororidade (PIEDADE, 2019) and other Afro-Brazilian epistemological currents to understand under this bias the work As filhas das lavadeiras (2002) by Maria Helena Vargas da Silveira (1940-2009),  who chooses for himself the epithet of Helena do Sul. The work brings twenty-one accounts of daughters of laundresses from the south and southeast regions of the country, sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third, weaving stories of resistance and erasure the "Official History".