Francisca Trindade: o poder e a resistência da mulher negra

Abstract

This book Francisca Trindade The Power and Resistance of Black Women is a posthumous tribute to the popular leader and parliamentarian Francisca Trindade (1966 – 2003) who was born and lived in Teresina. Trindade exercised her activism on several fronts. She began as a community leader – in the Água Mineral neighborhood and in youth groups, graduated in Theology from the Federal University of Piauí, and was an active participant in the formation and construction of the movement of poor, black, women and workers. She organized and founded groups and organizations to fight for housing and vigorously defended human rights, especially those of women and black people.

The book aims to make visible and value testimonies and experiences of this black woman's struggle from a perspective that goes beyond the personal and emotional dimension, since writing about Francisca Trindade also required situating and contextualizing the socio-historical, political and cultural conditions of Teresina, Piauí and Brazil. That is, the book, by recounting the experiences that the authors of the articles had during Francisca Trindade's life, organically exposes the social, political and cultural context of the time.

In this sense, the book can be a source of research for students and researchers in the areas of literature, history, sociology, anthropology, education, philosophy, and, ultimately, humanities disciplines who seek to understand and comprehend the reality of Teresina's youth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; the striking problems that affected the neighborhoods and the desires for change of people who fought for better lives; the fight for labor rights and women's rights and the call for black consciousness.

A distinctive feature of her political career as a councilwoman, state deputy and federal deputy, Trindade did not legislate based on her personal or family interests. The book shows that Francisca Trindade's actions were constantly aligned with popular desires, in favor of the less fortunate. Therefore, even though this book originated from acts of affective and collective memory (Halbwachs, 1990), to the same or greater extent, it is sustained by the valorization of experiential knowledge from a perspective of cultural and decolonial studies regarding the reality of the poor and black population of the city of Teresina, the state of Piauí and Brazil at a given time.

The authors of the texts are part of the UESPI faculty, professors Assunção de Maria Sousa e Silva (CCHL/NEPA) and Lucineide Barros Medeiros (CCECA), from other educational institutions and from the organized popular social movement of Teresina.