USP law will decide whether to keep tribute to eugenicist – 03/27/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

The Faculty of Law of USP (University of São Paulo) will decide, next Thursday (30), whether to remove or maintain at the institution a tribute paid to a professor linked to the Eugenics Society of São Paulo and to mistreatment of the body of a black woman.

Professor of forensic medicine, Amâncio de Carvalho would have embalmed the body of Jacinta Maria de Santana to use it in experiments and in student pranks at Largo de São Francisco, in São Paulo, at the beginning of the 20th century. space classrooms.

Discussions against the tribute were initiated by the academic community in 2021 and, last year, reached the Congregation of the Faculty of Law, the highest body for deliberating the institution’s affairs. Since then, the case has been dragging on amid several requests for review.

A commission made up of professors and students prepared a report on the alleged abuses against Jacinta committed by the professor, who was honorary vice-president of the Eugenics Society of São Paulo. The conclusions were presented during a meeting of the Congregation that took place last year.

While students defended the removal of the professor’s name from the classroom, professor Renato de Mello Jorge Silveira, head of the Faculty’s Criminal Law Department and rapporteur of the case, defended the maintenance of the homage. He then filed a request for a view to reassess the evidence.

The case was debated again in November 2022, but, in the face of a new request for postponement made by graduate representatives, there was no conclusion. With the holding of a new meeting of the Congregation this week, students have mobilized for the name of the eugenicist professor to be removed from the institution.

“The configuration of the USP Faculty of Law has changed, especially with the adoption of the quota system in 2018, so that the number of black students has grown significantly. It is natural that symbols of this institution, founded during the era of slavery, are questioned”, says student Anderson Damasio Pessoa da Silva, who represents undergraduate students in the Congregation.

“It is extremely violent for students to see men like Amâncio de Carvalho, defenders of eugenics, being honored in this space”, he further states.

Jacinta Maria de Santana’s story was revealed by historian Suzane Jardim and released by the Ponte Jornalismo portal in April 2021. According to the publication, Jacinta was a poor woman who had no fixed residence and lived in the central region of the city of São Paulo . He died on November 26, 1900, on the way to a hospital, after falling ill.

According to the historian, her corpse was handed over to Amâncio de Carvalho with the aim of making it possible to improve studies on embalming. For about three decades, the black woman’s body would have been used to illustrate forensic medicine classes at the Faculty of Law – but also in pranks.

At the time when Jacinta’s story came to light, Floriano de Azevedo Marques Neto, then professor at the Faculty of Law at USP, repudiated what had happened. “It matters less that it was an event that occurred more than 120 years ago. What is relevant is that the episode points to disrespect for the body of a human being and also the very strong racist bias in that society (which unfortunately still lingers) that just formally left slavery,” he said. , In this ocasion.

_{with CLEO GUIMARÃES (interim)BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH}

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