The main objective of this paper is to address the ethnic discussion involving the aforementioned institution, which was established and maintained by the Congregação do Verbo Divino (Society of the Divine Word), from Germany. To reach this purpose, we sought to conduct the historical reconstruction of the school, based on a methodological approach that joined the fields of History of Education and History Politics, and to follow the cultural bias observed in the ethnic, religious and social conflicts experienced by the foreign communities studied. Thus, we sought to understand how the establishment of this group of foreigners took place in the planned and newly created capital of Minas Gerais, by focusing on the relations among foreign customs, education, urbanization, and religion. It was found that, at certain times, the local population rejected the presence of such school. This occurred in spite of the fact that the proposals that guided the German missionaries who founded the school involved issues of great cultural acceptance.
Ehnic Groups; Religious Schools; Foreign Missionaries