Abstract

SLATER, Candace. Mirrors of the present in stories of the past and prophecies of things to come: Contemporary commentaries by younger female pilgrims to Juazeiro do Norte. Educação. UNISINOS [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.1, pp.21-35.  Epub June 18, 2019. ISSN 2177-6210.  https://doi.org/10.4013/edu.2019.231.02.

This article analyzes stories told by younger female participants in the ongoing pilgrimage that honors the priest Padre Cícero Romão Batista in the Northeastern backlands city of Juazeiro do Norte. It devotes special attention to various sorts of stories and commentaries, concluding with a look at some present-day versions of prophecies that the speakers attribute to the priest during his lifetime (1844-1934). These prophecies tend to represent Padre Cícero as a sympathetic presence in a society that still looks with suspicion upon women who seek to better their lives through the pursuit of additional formal education and/or satisfying work outside the home. The space that they afford largely poor individuals to comment on the present and an imagined future makes them particularly revealing testimony to rapid changes and continuing challenges in today’s Brazil. The narratives as a whole are of interest to educators in their capacity to involve younger along with older persons in the transmission of the past. As a result, the conclusion of my analysis offers a number of suggestions as to how these stories could and should be used in and beyond schools. These suggestions allow readers to imagine ways that the stories described in the body of the text may find new uses and meanings in an educational environment.

Keywords : Padre Cícero; women; pilgrimage.

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