Young workers in 3x4 photography and the history of work in Rio Grande do Sul state, from 1933 to 1943

Abstract

This article aims to analyze information about young workers in Rio Grande do Sul state who applied for a carteira profissional (official work documents) from 1933 to 1943. Used for this will be the professional qualification records kept by Historical Documentation Group of the Federal University of Pelotas. It is intended to discover some data kept in these, such as profession and the 3x4 photographs of these workers. The data will be compared with the government decree that created the carteira profissional in 1932 and also with the one that regulated the work of minors, aged between14 and 18, published the same year. In relation to the 3x4 photographs, they constitute important supports for understanding the participation of boys and girls in the world of work at a time when the relations between the state governed by Getulio Vargas and workers were intensifying due to the creation of labor laws. The analysis of 3x4 photographs has made it possible to understand the work of children and youth in the 1930s and 1940s and also that working conditions that did not always comply with the regulations in force at the time.