“Como se fosse meu filho”? As crianças e suas famílias no Juízo dos Órfãos de Porto Alegre (1860-1899)

Abstract

This study aims to analyze not only the situation of minors and their families that, in the city of Porto Alegre in the last half of XIX century (then the capital city of the province/ the southernmost Brazilian state), called on the legal guardianship mechanism to settle, through legal means, any misfortune that has happened to them or their families, but also the institution that was responsible for trying the judicial proceedings - The Orphans Court of Porto Alegre. That institution protected the rights of children living without a family because of parents’ maltreatment, diseases, incapability – or death - , being in charge of designating an adult to be responsible for each child who needed a guardian. This paper used Social History as theoretical methodological framework in order to reflect on given aspects related to the institution, as those who enforce the law, the social agents who appealed to it introducing a minor in need of a legal guardian and, mainly, the children, adolescent and the young who had their history preserved in the Guardianship Court records. Therefore, we were able to comprehend the family dynamics in which the social political and economic structure ended up interceding through the District Court of Orphans of Porto Alegre.