Os caminhos dos sol: atravessar veredas na cidade escurece a vista (Migração Sertão – Cidade de Sobral 1950 – 1980)

Abstract

This research investigated the migration performed by residents of farms and villages located in the region of the Interior of Ceará state, north to the city of Sobral, between the decades of 1950 and 1980, with the intent to find out their reasons, according to their own perceptions, for this move and the possibilities for staying in that city. In order to accomplish that, twenty-seven interviews were conducted, which differed among themselves as the situation demanded; afterwards, they were analyse dand some, the best that represented the issues proposed, were chosen. The research also made use of written sources (governmental reports, a company personnel records, laws, and newspaper articles), literary texts and iconographic sources (photographs, maps). The investigation concluded that the migrations and the ways in which people settled in Sobral could be seen as political acts of resistance, in the pursuit for changing their social and cultural status related to the coexistence of the private land, droughts, unemployment, social and family dissensions.