Políticas identitárias e usos do passado no movimento separatista "O Sul é o meu país" (1992-2017)

Abstract

The present work discusses how the separatist movement “O Sul é o Meu País” invests discursively in a conception of identity and tradition, as well as, its implications in the use of memory to legitimize a secession of the Brazilian State. The rhetoric of taxes paid without return to the region and the lack of representativeness are arguments very present in the materials of the movement. However, we believe that in order to understand the existence of the movement historically, we must face questions that relate to the very narrative that the movement "The South is my country" has built upon itself in the last decades. Our hypothesis is based in affirmation that the emergence of a regime of presential historicity brought to the order of time political disputes established in the past, especially claiming categories linked to identity problems. The movement “O Sul é o Meu País” sustains its political position through a historical narrative that produces processes of differentiation and affirmation of whiteness and southern identity associated with a regional history that legitimates itself in the exaltation of ethical and aesthetic values linked to work and savings. The sources that were used for the research are newspapers, magazines and books of the movement itself.