33 Alagoinhas Street: Memory and the invisible work of women in building a home

Abstract

This article studies the biographical, autobiographical, and (auto)biographical constructions developed by Zélia Gattai in A Casa do Rio Vermelho (1999), situating the domestic space of the Casa do Rio Vermelho as a physical archive space, as well as a symbolic space that holds the memory, affection, and invisible labor of women. The deductive and bibliographic methodology employed in this study shows how Gattai’s memorialist writing style reveals the intellectual, emotional, reproductive, and often invisible roles she held her entire life, such as, for example, those of secretary, typist, archivist, photographer, researcher, mother, wife, and, later in life, acclaimed writer. Articulating concepts of transcorporeality, ecosophy, and critical ecofeminism, this article argues that the construction of a home transcends its architecture, becoming an ethical, political, and affective process, rooted in women’s labor and memory preservation. The study also emphasizes how Gattai’s narrative transforms the domestic experience into a counter-hegemonic literary practice, resistant to patriarchal and capitalistic forms of invisibilization. The Casa do Rio Vermelho, therefore, emerges as a living ecosystem, full of dreams, tales, subjectivities, and collective histories, and, by recovering Gattai’s contributions, this study proposes new trajectories for literary studies, feminist theory, and memory studies in Brazil and Latin America.