Manuel Pardal: o menino que nasceu sem cor livro ilustrado para crianças sobre o limbo racial da população parda no Ceará

Abstract

Racial dynamics in Ceará, particularly those involving the population classified as pardo (mixed-race) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), form the central narrative of the illustrated project Manuel Pardal: The Boy Who Was Born Without a Color. According to the latest report from the Institute for Research and Economic Strategy of Ceará (IPECE), individuals classified as pardo represented 66.2% of the state's total population. Based on this context, the present work investigates what Gomes (2019) refers to as the “Racial Identity Limbo of Pardos,” a condition reinforced within the social imaginary and through media practices that construct negative representations of Black and Indigenous (racialized) individuals. This process contributes to a reluctance to embrace Black identity. In the book’s narrative, the main issues that affect pardo individuals are explored through the experiences of the protagonist, Manuel Pardal, a child from Ceará. The story also examines how racist discourses present across various forms of media strengthen this lack of racial identification among pardos.