Life and work of Carolina Maria de Jesus in modern times

LIFE AND WORK

Hunger is yellow. Bread, coffee and soap become the most mentioned objects in the diary of a favela resident, edited by journalist Audálio Dantas, who was responsible for correcting spelling mistakes and cutting out the author's spelling in the 37 handwritten notebooks, The journalist was shocked by the veracity of the words and, in 1958, Carolina's first report announcing the newspaper appeared in Folha da Noite. In 1960, the book took shape, the journalist Dantas persuaded the Francisco de Alves bookstore to publish the work Quarto de despejo (The trash diary) by Carolina Maria de Jesus. The author began living in the Canindé favela, in the northern part of São Paulo. As a single mother, she began working as a paper collector, saving the papers she found on the street so she could write. This way, the writer could work and take care of her children, because after the first one, the other two came, one from each parent, two boys and a girl. And so his journey begins by writing down the birthday of his youngest daughter Vera Eunice.

July 15, 1955

My daughter Vera Eunice's birthday. I had intended to buy her a pair of shoes. But the cost of food prevents us from fulfilling our wishes. We are currently slaves to the cost of living. I found a pair of shoes in the trash, washed them, and mended them for her to wear. (JESUS, 2020)

On street A, shack number 9, it was in this home that she began a new journey where paper was not only her livelihood, but also a way of demonstrating against what he considered unjust in society. Her writing was a form of denunciation. Carolina said that the favela was society's dumping ground.

July 1st

When I go to the city I feel like I'm in paradise. I think it's sublime to see those women and children so well dressed. So different from the favela. The houses with their flower pots and varied colors. Those landscapes will delight the eyes of visitors to São Paulo, who are unaware that the most famous city in South America is sick. With their ulcers. The slums. (JESUS, 2020)

In her diary it is possible to find arguments involving sociopolitics,alcoholism, aggression, sexuality, scarcity and her life experience in the Canindé favela, located in the northern area of São Paulo. The work portrays the population considered a minority, although the majority of the outskirts are currently made up of neighborhoods with a larger number of inhabitants. The favelas expanded over time, being called by another name, periphery.
Jesus (1960), when reporting her difficulties as a lower-class resident and worker, seeing the world surrounded by duality between superficiality and misery, shows us through his words the scarcity of resources and the lives of people who struggle, exposed to the disease, in search of survival.

June 17

I spent the night like this: I woke up and wrote. Then I fell asleep again. At 5 a.m. Vera started vomiting. I gave her a sedative and she fell asleep. When the rain stopped, I took the opportunity to go out. I picked up a paper bag. [...] I only received 12 cruzeiros. I picked up some tomatoes and some garlic and came home running because Vera is sick. I arrived and she was sleeping. She woke up with my noises. She said she was hungry. I went to buy milk and made some porridge for her. She drank it and vomited a worm. Then he got up and walked around a little and lay down again. (Jesus, 2020)

Related to the diary Quarto de despejo, the Brazilian scenario fits into an entire historical social context, with the changes in the presidency, the military coup, the corruption and racism of a Brazil still with traces of colonization, where the terms employment and boss - mistress and slave - are structuring elements.

June 16

One day, a white man said to me: - If black people had come into the world after white people, then white people could have protested with reason. But neither the white nor the black knows their origin. The white is the one who says he is superior. But what superiority does the white man have? If the black man drinks pinga, the white man drinks it. The illness that affects the black man, affects the white man. If the white man feels hungry, the black man does too. Nature does not select anyone. (Jesus, 2020, p. 64)

This social gap that exists and is neither spoken nor seen. This is the result of poor income distribution and less access to health, safety and comfort among those most in need. The lack of equity is the word that defines the right for all. We can point out the issue of Carolina's effort in assuming the responsibility of telling a story that is not only hers, it is surprising, according to which he described the historical and political reality of his time. Unconformed, misunderstood by society, the work continues to be an object of study in the present time, while Brazil continues to be a problematic country.