One of the oldest in the country, the gaucho black club emerged to bury the bodies of enslaved people.

It is a commonplace to attribute the emergence of black clubs in Brazil, from the end of the 19th century, to the ban on the entry of black people in organizations frequented by whites. According to researcher Giane Vargas, a professor at Unipampa (Federal University of Pampa), the history of Rio Grande do Sul is even more cruel than that.

“Not going to spaces occupied by whites was something so fixed that it was not even problematized. Black clubs like Floresta Aurora emerged as one of the basic needs of these people”, he says.

On the verge of turning 150, it is the oldest black social club in Brazil found in Vargas’ master’s research. The dissertation, entitled “Black social clubs: places of memory, black resistance, heritage and potential”, mapped more than 200 institutions since the 19th century in the country.

In the case of Sociedade Cultural Floresta Aurora, now located in the Belém Novo neighborhood, in Porto Alegre, the need was to raise money to put a dignified end to the bodies of enslaved people, until then buried in shallow ditches. Sometimes, they were the parents of black men and women who had already been manumitted.

Other resources were used to help buy a letter of manumission, given that the club’s foundation, December 31, 1872, predates the abolition of slavery, on May 13, 1888.

Throughout its history, the Aurora Forest has served as a reference for the local black community. He had among his partners and advisers names such as Tesourinha, a striker for Inter who was part of the so-called “Rolo compressor”, a historic team from the 1940s.

A photo from 1944 shows the player alongside his black teammates Alfeu and Ávila in tribute paid by Floresta Aurora. Behind them, the black leaders are those from Floresta. The whites, Inter.

While emphasizing its blackness, the club accepts and encourages white members to join.

“We fight racism, but our emblem is literally equality. Our coat of arms has two hands, one black and one white, greeting each other”, declares Gilmar Afrausino, current president.

According to its leaders, Floresta Aurora completes 150 years fighting for its survival, as it has done since its foundation. The situation became more dramatic in the Covid-19 pandemic, when the doors were closed.

According to the vice president of finance, Sérgio Luiz Fonseca, the club has less than 100 members who pay their monthly fees, even with affordable prices.

While other social clubs in Porto Alegre charge BRL 6,000 for admission – the so-called “jewel” – and monthly fees around BRL 350, Floresta Aurora charges BRL 150 for new members and a minimum monthly fee of BRL 50.

The club has a soccer field and two swimming pools, in addition to more than 5,000 square meters of green area.

“We expect that this number will improve with the resumption and with the 150th anniversary celebrations. However, the future of the club is to be financed less by membership and more by raising funds from other sources that required some changes in the club’s organization , such as parliamentary amendments”, declares Fonseca.

One of the financial challenges is maintaining its headquarters, which since 2013 has been in a region surrounded by poor farms and communities in the Belém Velho neighborhood.

It is the fourth seat of the association, which, like other black cultural institutions in Porto Alegre, seems to be expelled from the city center as regions develop and real estate expansion takes hold.

Founded in Lima e Silva, in the central region, Floresta Aurora has already moved to two addresses in the south, close to the waterfront, in the Cristal and Pedra Redonda neighborhoods.

After facing a lawsuit from residents and fearing expropriation, the club exchanged its headquarters in Pedra Redonda in exchange for land in Belém Velho, until then a private property rented for events.

The positive side is that Floresta Aurora found needy communities there in need of assistance as well as sports and leisure, which goes back to the club’s origins.

On hot summer days, access has already been granted to children in the neighborhood. “During the pandemic, we collected basic food baskets, school kits, coats and shoes for the residents around us. We managed to attend to all of them, and there were still resources left for a quilombola community. So I think it’s more correct to say that we embrace the community as much as we were embraced by her”, declares Afrausino.

In 2022, the club plans different celebrations of the 150 years, which include a seminar in a partnership with UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), an end-of-year dance and the publication of a book. Vargas, involved in the research for the publication, demands more attention from the public authorities.

This month, an organization and documentation project for the club’s 150th anniversary hit the bar in an attempt to obtain R$ 150,000 from a public notice issued by the State Department of Culture. He stayed on as one of the alternates.

“The very existence of Floresta Aurora is already an affirmative action and says something to all of us,” she says. “The very resistance to having been expelled from a central neighborhood and being able to stay in another neighborhood, even in the periphery and much further away, is already an extremely political action of organization. Our black body within that institution says something.”

Afrausino argues that it is worth celebrating, but also concrete action. “We want to congratulate you, yes, on 150 years. But we also want resources to preserve this heritage.”