Struggle for rights, color and press: the trajectory of Maurício José de Lafuente (Rio de Janeiro – 1831-1837).
Men of Color, Regency Period, Press, Rights.
This dissertation is the result of research conducted on the connections between the press and the political activity of men of color through the trajectory of Maurício José de Lafuente during the regency period in the capital of the Empire. The movement, spurred in 1831 after the abdication of d. Pedro I—but already being incorporated since 1822—was able to make politics effectively public and create new forms of sociability, bringing socially distant groups closer together. A man of mixed race, born in Bahia, a military officer, diamond trader, and typographer, Maurício José de Lafuente traveled through various provinces such as Pernambuco and Espírito Santo before arriving in Rio de Janeiro. His life was repeatedly intersected by the press and the Brazilian justice system. With his trajectory ambiguously told and explored, he became a prominent figure in this period when "men of color" had significant participation in the periodical press. In investigating his trajectory, an attempt was made to draw a parallel between the individual and collective experiences of men of color in the 1830s who made the capital of the Empire their laboratory for actions and strategies to guarantee their individual rights as citizens. Thus, the research sought to contribute to historiography by presenting the trajectory of Maurício José de Lafuente, who is not an isolated, unique, or exclusive case, but rather part of a network of men of color, descendants of enslaved people, who, through their heterogeneous experiences, lived in a space of full freedom, with guaranteed constitutional and legal rights, even though they were victims of racial discrimination.