Memories of sanatoriums in São José dos Campos and Campos do Jordão, SP (1920-1960)

Abstract

São José dos Campos and Campos do Jordão, São Paulo, were, at the beginning of the twentieth century, important centers of tuberculosis treatment. The two municipalities, one at middle and one high-altitude, had specialized treatment centers (hospitals, sanatoriums, and guesthouses) for patients suffering from tuberculosis, which was a highly contagious disease at the time. The assembly of tuberculosis patents demanded the creation of sanitary guidelines that imposed specific relationships for coexistence, aimed at separating the sick and changing the routine of healthy residents, haunted by the possibility of contagion. Until the mid-twentieth century, there was no prevention or cure for tuberculosis, which imposed a new social dynamic with specific social networks. Residents and patients of the cities of São José dos Campos and Campos do Jordão experienced private times in which tuberculosis ruled their day-to-day lives. The residents lived two different lives in constant conflicts: the common life of any other upstate city and the climacteric state. Taking this reality and relations of approximation / distance as a basis, the questions are: How did the patients and residents of the treatment centers coexist? Did social relations exist between these individuals? If so, were there cheerful and relaxed times? What were the lives like of married tuberculosis patients seeking treatment in the resorts, who spent years or decades away from their families? How did the city dwellers perceive the sick? What relations were established between TB services and certain professional groups, such as cooks, waiters, barbers, dentists, teachers, clothes washers, etc.? What spaces were permitted and forbidden to tuberculosis patients? What were the destinies of children born in treatment centers? The research will enable the creation of a database aimed at recovering memories and reconstructing an important story of the spaces in the cities of São José dos Campos and Campos do Jordão in the early twentieth century through social memory. (AU)