Immigration, kinship and the city of Rio de Janeiro at the turn of the 20th century

between lines of a criminal process

Abstract

The article proposes to construct a historical narrative based on evidences collected in a criminal process and newspaper clippings of the beginning of the republican period in Brazil, resulting from a crime occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From these sources, a brief trajectory was built about a brother and sister of Arab descent, as well as of some characters close to them, ordinary subjects, who would generally be absent from historical sources, but who were momentarily noticed due the tragic event. The reassembly of the events that would have happened in a Sapopemba farm raises questions that permeate the narrative, such as the immigration and installation of Arab communities in Brazil, and the construction of the urban space of Rio de Janeiro from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The proper aspects of a narrative like the one analysed also propitiate the reflection on the writing of history in its relation with literature and fiction.