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Negotiations, fake news and scapegoats: ‘The Dancer of Death’, by historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling, shows that the ghosts of the past still haunt the present
Between the Spanish flu, which killed about 50 million worldwide and 50,000 in Brazil in 1918 and early the following year, and the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in March and remains deadly to this day. , a century has passed. To be more exact, 102 years. Although the times and contexts are completely different, the two scenarios have many similarities and, above all, a forgotten past, little told in the country.
On March 13, two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus pandemic, historian and anthropologist Lilia Schwarcz, forced to interrupt in person the course she taught at Princeton University in the United States He came to Brazil to spend a season that seemed short to him.
Here, alarmed by what she saw, she reflected on what happened in the last century and also sought out the historian Heloisa Starling, a professor at UFMG. “I told him that we had to write what that experience was, the lack of memory about the Spanish flu. This impresses me a lot, ”says Lilia. “We began to see that the disease had been completely erased from the history of Brazil and that it could provide us with elements to understand what is happening today,” adds Heloisa.
From this intellectual, historical, social and cultural malaise shared in online conversations, “A Bailarina da Morte: The Spanish Flu in Brazil” was born, a book recently released by the duo, who also signed “Brasil: Uma Biografia”, in 2015. In almost 400 pages, what we see is an X-ray of a country devastated by a disease that arrived in Brazil in September 1918 aboard ships from a Europe also devastated by the First World War, which ended just at the end of that year.
As the search for the book has evolved in recent months, the similarities between past and present have become evident, and this is one of the characteristics of the work: to reveal yesterday to understand now and to open up how the history, so many times for the bad guy. The list ranges from negative attitudes in both periods towards the virus, mainly in 2020, to the creation of scapegoats. If today we speak of “Chinese virus”, in the last century the problem fell in Spain.
“The disease was not strong in Spain, it affects more young people between 20 and 40 years old who were on the battlefield. All the countries involved in the war decided to remain silent, but Spain had no censorship in the press and was the first country to speak of the pandemic, ”says Lilia Schwarcz. Apparently, the “Spanish flu” originates in the United States, in Kansas.
Another correlation, the historian reflects, is the creation of a miraculous thought. In 1918, quinine salt was announced as the great salvation, and the so-called chloroquine was already part of the speeches at that time and was in pharmacies as an effective remedy to fight malaria. “In 1918, the medical authorities, however, did not endorse chloroquine. Today, we have a small president of the cartel ”, he says.
“Bailarina da Morte” highlights how the pandemic opens up social inequalities in both seasons, the disastrous impacts on the economy, the political maneuvers to minimize the virus and the important role of the press in pressuring governments not to hide statistics.
For Lilia Schwarcz, the ghosts of the past still haunt the present, and the book is a record from which some learnings may emerge: “I hope the reaction to Covid-19 is not forgotten, otherwise we will not accumulate experience. The lack of memory is the sister of death ”.
Research
The authors also discuss the challenge and novelty of writing a four-handed book without face-to-face meetings. Many hours were dedicated to online meetings and consultations with public digital archives and newspapers, in addition to the help of a network of collaborators in different cities of the country, such as Recife and Belo Horizonte.
The dissertations and academic theses on the period of the Spanish flu in the country were fundamental to verify the data and conclude the book, as Heloisa Starling insists on praising: “This academic production was one of the most important sources. If anyone has any questions about knowledge production in universities, I suggest doing research to find extraordinary jobs. This brought the memory of the Spanish flu in Brazil ”.
Book denies centuries-old fake news
In 2020, the pandemic period suffers from an avalanche of misinformation, including false promises of miracle cures and the idea that the virus was created in the laboratory by the Chinese government for political gain. Anyone who thinks fake news is a contemporary phenomenon is wrong. A hundred years ago, the news was also promoted and has not been questioned until now.
Instigated by the writer and journalist Ruy Castro, Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling undid a secular error in Brazilian political history. “A Bailarina da Morte” dedicates a chapter to the death of former President Rodrigues Alves. The pages take on tones of police suspense, and historians reveal that, in fact, the then president of the nation did not die in January 1919 of the Spanish flu.
Re-elected, Alves did not take office in November of the previous year, when the news that he had contracted the Spanish flu was made public. “Rumor is the father of fake news. A totally bogus version was built, but it had such credibility that it held and took hold so strongly, and a hundred years later, you can open any history book or newspaper and that story will be there. It’s amazing how the rumor swallowed the story, ”says Heloisa Starling. To know the true story, just read the book.
“The dancer of death: the Spanish flu in Brazil” (Companhia das Letras), by Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling, 368 pages, R $ 59.90 (book) and R $ 29.90 (electronic book)
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