This article looks at Sociedade Recreativa União Operária (1903), an association founded by Afro-Descendants linked to the Brotherhood of Irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos. We consider the relationship between religious and lay associations, the principal indicator of the African ancestry of the members of Operária, since this association did not stipulate an ethnic-racial identification during the first half of the twentieth century. Hiding race or color in a class based group in the city of Laguna, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, is understood as an opportunity for studying Afro-Brazilian associativity in the post-abolition period.
associativism; post-abolition; Laguna
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