MEMORIES OF A JEWISH FAMILY, IN THE AMAZON, IN ELIAS SALGADO'S CHRONICLES

Abstract

This work turns to the study of family memories present in the chronicle books by Elias Salgado, a writer of Sephardic origin. In O fim do mundo e outras histórias de beira-rio (2015), Elias tells the story of his family of Sephardic Jewish origin, residing in the interior of the Amazon. For that end, it will be necessary to understand how studies concerning to memory, culture and identity are constituted. It is known that memory has an extreme relevance in the experience of the human being, so that it can be a link between a group of people, communities, and even being part of the identity construction of a certain people, as Le Goff (2005, p. 469-470) and Paul Ricouer (2007) points out. In this same line of thought, Mauríce Halbawchs (1990) points out that the memories we build are guided not only by what is established individually, since it is in the community that they are forged and passed on from generation to generation. It is worth mentioning that studying identity will also be one of the focuses of this research, considering that it is imbricated with memory. Stuart Hall (2006, p. 17) believes that identity is a process of construction. Hommi Bhabha (1998, p. 19) stress that culture and identity are forged in a process that is not fixed, since it is in transition, a process that he calls "beyond, which is neither a new horizon nor an abandonment of the past". Therefore, the Jewish presence in the Amazon is perceived in Elias Salgado's memorialistic writings, so this research intends to identify and study the cultural and historical echoes that allude to a Jewish identity in the Amazon.