Pelas veredas dos cristais de rocha: as representações do sertão garimpeiro do antigo norte goiano na literatura regional

Abstract

Over four decades of the twentieth century, between 1940 and 1980, northern Goiás was the stage of intense rock crystal extraction, a process that (trans)formed the social fabric of this vast geographical region. The sertão of mining camps attracted individuals from various Brazilian states and abroad, who entered the central-northern territory of Brazil driven by the frenzied and unrestrained pursuit of the coveted gemstone. In the novel Dueré: pelos garimpos de cristal de rocha (2020), Juarez Moreira Filho revives the landscapes and representations of the mining sertão through his literary narrative. At the same time, he evokes the socioeconomic and cultural substrata of the subjects and institutions present in the “great northern Goiás.” The author reflects on how his life and the experiences of others were shaped by the sertão and by the crystal mining enterprise. Although the exploitation of rock crystal left a profound mark on the region, little to no documentation about it exists in official records or academic research. In this dissertation, I problematize the lived experiences and customs of the mining sertão through the lens of Dueré, a work that brings together traces of the historicity of socioeconomic and cultural practices related to rock crystal mining in the former northern Goiás—an area that attracted thousands of people, wildly driven by dreams of easy wealth, and where villages, settlements, and cities came to life. To support the development of this dissertation, which emphasizes representations of the mining sertão, I gathered data and testimonies from diverse sources: narratives of people recounting lived experiences and witnessed events, books, dissertations, academic and scientific articles, newspaper reports, and even photographs. I engaged in dialogue with numerous authors whose work addresses the themes explored here, selecting excerpts that enriched and supported the meanings conveyed in my discourse. A multitude of texts and discourses intersected in the construction of this thesis, offering plural perspectives on the world, particularly on mining and its multifaceted dimensions. Through this exercise in interdiscursivity, I draw from, among others, the works of Juarez Moreira Filho (2020, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009), Júlio Paternostro (1945), José Maria Audrin (1963, 1946), Carmo Bernardes (2005), Eli Brasiliense (1977, 1964, 1960), Luís Sabóia Ribeiro (1959), Sálvio Dino (1981), Bernardo Guimarães (1951), Maria de Lourdes Janotti (1992), Euclides Antunes de Medeiros (2012), and Sandra Jatahy Pesavento (2014, 2001, 1999). This dissertation is configured as a historical study, supported by literary contributions, of the vast sertão of the former northern Goiás (now the state of Tocantins), with an emphasis on the historical, social, political, and economic aspects that intertwine with symbolic systems which give meaning to sertanejo and mining identities. Objectivity and subjectivity coexist in the discourse of this work, sustained by the convergence of historical and literary languages. This blending of history and literature provided me with the analytical tools to explore the multiple elements constituting the systems of the vast sertão of Goiás, and most notably, of the rock crystal mining context. It was within this mining sertão that plural Tocantins identities were constructed