Abstract
Brazilian society has a history marked by violence and authoritarianism. The colonial history that founds the idea of Brazil is consolidated with the notion of national identity based on racist, sexist and heteronormative aspects. These expressions of violence have been denounced and viewed from a perspective focused on the public and macro-structural dimension of society, and the expressions of micro-violence or the dimension of private life are not always understood as fundamental for the reproduction of these expressions of violence. The 1970s feminist idea that “the personal sphere” is political, seeks to break away from this division and recognizes that private life and the aspects that have historically been associated with it are a central locus for understanding how distinct violence and power systems intersect and produce experiences that require a critical and intersectional critical look from social analysts, public policy actors, and individuals. The proposal of this essay is to problematize the institution of motherhood as a patriarchal, colonial, capitalist and racist apparatus of control and reclusion of women from two religious constructions on motherhood: the first version of the Hail Mary prayer and an itan of the Yoruba oral tradition on Oxum, orixá of the fecundity and protector of the pregnant women.
Maternity; Decolonial feminism; Gender coloniality