Um espaço para os leprosos: planejamento, edificação e funcionamento do Leprosário São Lázaro e da Colônia do Carpina (Parnaíba - PI): 1928-1944

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the planning, construction and operation of a space built to care for lepers, at a time when leprosy was considered a disgrace for anyone who came close to it. The goal is to understand, from the São Lázaro Leprosarium and the Carpina Colony, the spatial transformations that took place to house men and women identified clinically, socially and culturally as "lepers". This is an institution that has had two names: Leprosário São Lázaro (in the interval between 1928, when its construction project was drawn up, until 1941, when the entity passed under the control of the state government) and Colônia do Carpina (in the period between 1941 and 1944, when it belonged to the state government). This institution is located in the city of Paranaíba, on the coast of Piauí, 330 kilometers from Teresina. The timeframe of the study is limited to the period between 1928 and 1944, which also defines the scope of the sources used. These sources were organized into six groups of documents: 1) the federal and state laws that regulated the treatment of leprosy; 2) the materials produced on a daily basis at the São Lázaro leprosarium, in particular the medical records and inmates' files; 3) the works of memorialists who had experiences with the institution; 4) the versions of the Almanaque da Parnaíba, produced in 1932 and 1940; 5) the photographs that show the buildings of the institution. and, finally, 6) The book Hospital colônia do Carpina. From a theoretical point of view, the work is anchored in Gofman and Michel de Certeau. The former refers to the concept of stigma as a derogatory social mark and the latter defines space as a practiced place in which subjects carry out their transgressions of the established orders. These two conceptualizations were essential in the discussion.