Prostitution and urban modernization:

deterritorialization of sex workers on Santa Rita Street (Juiz de Fora, 19th–20th centuries)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the deterritorialization of sex workers on Santa Rita Street in Juiz de Fora in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A documentary and journalistic analysis was conducted using the newspaper O Pharol in order to understand the factors that led to the removal of this activity. The results indicate that this process was consolidated with Resolution No. 864 of May 1921, which prohibited the housing of “people with immoral lifestyles” in the city center. As a consequence, accompanied by repressive actions by the government and Juiz de Fora society, sex workers were displaced from Santa Rita. These women were reterritorialized in socially devalued areas located on the outskirts of the urban center. The study contributes to the understanding of the impacts of urbanization on marginalized populations, highlighting normative and social processes that reinforce spatial inequalities.