Paraná taught to Children: Eurocentric and Racial Narratives in Regional Textbooks from Paraná (1903-1996)

Abstract

This article examines how the political and educational authorities of Paraná, a state in southern Brazil, supported the production of regional textbooks. These books contributed to the invention and dissemination of the "European Paraná" ideology —a historiographical narrative that argued geographical, ethnographic, and cultural factors rendered Paraná a "European" and "white" state, distinct from other Brazilian regions, and constructed upon a "vacant territory." This discursive construction, which romanticizes European colonization and minimizes indigenous and black presence, persisted for nearly a century, shaping the perception of Paraná as conveyed in textbooks. Non-European alterities are stereotyped, concealed, or minimized. We analyze a set of textbooks, supported by authorities and distributed in official schools: O Paraná e o Brasil (1903), by Sebastião Paraná; Pequena história do Paraná (1953), by Cecília Westphalen; A Abelhinha estuda história do Paraná (1969), by Renée Swain, and Histórias do cotidiano paranaense (1996), by Maria Auxiliadora Schmidt. We investigate the relationships among the historiographical operation, the political, intellectual, and educational fields, and how historical subjects (Europeans, indigenous peoples, black individuals) are represented. The analysis reveals different stages and purposes in historical writing, uncovering ambiguities, contradictions, and continuities in the representation of a Paraná forged as European.