Acknowledgements
Writing this book has been a long and rewarding journey, made possible thanks to the invaluable support of many people.
I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Professor Sedi Hirano, for his excellent guidance, critical insights, and enduring friendship. This book certainly would not have been possible without his invaluable contributions.
I would also like to thank the members of my doctoral committee, Mônica Schpun, André Singer, and Walquiria Leão Rego, for their incisive comments and encouragement throughout the process. I am especially grateful to Professor Mônica Schpun for welcoming me as a visiting researcher at the Centre des Recherches sur le Brésil Contemporain at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) between 2017 and 2018.
In a special way, I thank the professors, staff, and fellow students at the Graduate Program in Latin American Integration at the University of São Paulo (PROLAM/USP) for providing such a rich intellectual environment.
I am deeply indebted to my friends Vitor de Pieri, Charles Pennaforte, Fátima Silveira, André Lanza, Mayra Coan, Marcos Fávaro, Patricia Gomes, Bruno Pessoa, Julia Eder, and Maxime Arnan for their constant feedback, dialogue, and companionship. I am particularly thankful to my dear friend Fátima Silveira, whose thoughtful conversations have always been a great source of motivation and inspiration.
My deepest thanks go to all the incredible women who generously shared their time and stories with me during my fieldwork in Redenção, Ceará.
Some of the ideas developed in this book were presented at academic events and seminars organized by institutions such as PROLAM/USP, the CRBC/EHESS, the State University of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal University of Pelotas, the Fluminense Federal University, the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (IEALC) at the University of Buenos Aires, the European Council for Social Research on Latin America (CEISAL), and the International Congress of Americanists (ICA). I am thankful to all those who, through panel discussions and thoughtful comments, helped me refine these ideas.
This book would not have been possible without the generosity and encouragement of Professor Alfredo Saad-Filho, to whom I extend my deepest appreciation.
It has been a pleasure to work with Brill on the production of this book. I am particularly grateful to David Fasenfest for his support and patience throughout this process.
I also thank my friends and family for their constant support, for understanding my many absences, and for patiently listening to more about the topics discussed in this book than they probably ever wished to hear.
Finally, I am grateful to the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the fellowship that made this research possible.