A Brasília oculta das candangas : o direito à história da cidade

Abstract

This dissertation proposes a critical revision of the “oficial” narrative surrounding the construction of Brasília, highlighting how discourses legitimized by state institutions and historical documents have silenced the contributions of candangas—the women who helped build the city. From a feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspective, the study analyzes their participation in the urban formation of the capital between 1956 and 1970, with emphasis on the intersections of gender, race, and class. The research is primarily based on secondary sources, prioritizing studies produced by women or with significant female co-authorship, as a way to reinscribe historically subaltern knowledge into academic records. By questioning the effects of the sexual division of labor, the research seeks to understand the concrete contributions of these women to the city’s construction. It argues that they performed a wide range of roles — including secretaries, telephone operators, typists, civil servants, entrepreneurs, engineers, architects, urban planners, topographers, nurses, doctors, teachers, social project managers, political representatives, drivers, merchants, cooks, seamstresses, laundry workers, domestic caregivers, and prostitutes/sex workers — and were essential to the material, social, and symbolic support of the capital. By exploring the intersection between body and city, the dissertation reveals how these women wove, with their labor and presence, the everyday life of the so-called “improvised cities,” such as Vila Amaury and Vila Núcleo Bandeirante, thus establishing a form of protagonism that had been rendered invisible. In this way, this research contributes to urban studies by adopting a counter-hegemonic approach and simultaneously promotes the recognition and appreciation of subjects historically obscured in the construction of Brasília.