“Avigorar o corpo, robustecer o cérebro” : instrução pública e saúde infantil em Cuiabá : primeira metade do século XX

Abstract

The first half of the twentieth century in Brazil was a scenario of great changes. This period was marked by a political and economical elite's desire to overcome national problems, in order to put Brazil among the "civilized" nations. New problems were added to the ones Brazil already had, such as those created by the arrival of immigrants. The awful life conditions in great cities led to an increase of criminality, to the abandonment of children and, in national levels, to the overspread of diseases and to a high mortality rate. There was also an increasingly popular discourse that people's health would come from hygienic measures and from the segregation of those who were thought to cause the so-called "social evils". This society witnessed the birth of a movement that valued children as the nation's future, so that they should be protected, supported and cared for by the central government. We herein analyze the social place occupied by children in the first half of the twentieth century in Cuiabá, focusing on the three points: school, attention to heatlh and family. We seek these children's voices in sources from different origins, such as national and state laws and rules, news published in newspapers and magazines and written memorial records, in order to interpret data on the aforementioned theme. Therefore, by looking for children's voices in the first half of the twentieth century in Cuiabá, we intend to analyze what they lived, the spaces they belonged to, and the State policies applied to them at the time.