“Great competition of people ran to view the valuable and virile amusement”

regattas, clubs and ethnic relations in Porto Alegre in the nineteenth century (1877-1895)

Abstract

In the context of the Brazilian sportive development, the competitions connected to the practices in which water is the main stage, are related to a new attitude regarding health and the body, and there is an involvement between the sanitary conditions and the appreciation of hygiene as promoters of salubriousness. This redefinition plot valued its waterfront and surroundings, in this way baths started to have medical legitimation as soon as they were faced as healthy and recommended activities. Especially since the second half of the 19th century these premises ratified the wide development of practices that combined factors considered salubrious. In effect, Porto Alegre city, the state capital located in southern Brazil, has in its history an intimate relation with water. It is aimed, in this article, to point the early aspects of water sports formation in Porto Alegre and its consequent institutionalization in clubs, aside from its relation to an entertainment industry in formation and expansion. Discussing the local peculiarities that had important relevance in the Porto Alegre scenario in the 19th century, among them the conflict of ethnic character. For this analysis we used as a source the newspapers published in the city in the period on screen.