A gripe espanhola no litoral maranhense através dos jornais do Estado (1918-1919)

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the experience of the Spanish Flu on the coast of Maranhão, with a focus on São Luís and the then village of Cururupu, between 1918 and 1919, through narratives about the disease published in the Maranhão newspapers Pacotilha, O Jornal, Diario Official do Estado do Maranhão and O Littoral. The research seeks to understand social relations and power dynamics during the pandemic, as well as the ways in which government authorities, physicians, health authorities, and society responded to the emergence of a new disease. The methodology is based on a qualitative approach, considering subjectivity as a fundamental element in the construction of historical knowledge. A serial perspective, related to Serial History, is also employed in order to observe the phenomenon through its recurrence, using comparison to investigate events and explain them in terms of similarities and differences. Finally, the analyzed newspapers reveal, through their discourses and underlying meanings, two cities that responded differently to the health crisis. In São Luís, the sources highlight infrastructural problems, hospital precariousness, and deep social inequalities, in which poorer populations were disproportionately affected and faced intensified hardships. In Cururupu, the widespread adherence across social groups to therapeutic practices associated with pajelança stood out, within a context marked by governmental neglect and fragile sanitary structures.