Holding Embers: "Mythical Thought" About a Free Womb Childhood of a Black Queen in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil/Segurando brasas: "pensamento mitico" sobre a infancia de ventre livre de uma rainha negra no Rio Grande do Sul

The article analyses a legend about a child born of "free womb", Maria Tereza Joaquina, and also its repercussion in the ensuing generations. Adult, she was "Jinga" queen, in the decades of 50, 60 and 70 of the XXth century, of Osorio's macambique, a popular afro-catholic party in the littoral of Rio Grande do Sul. The interaction between "mythic thinking", memory and history will be focused. According to the narrative of the queen herself, she had held ember, during her childhood, to help her mother's master to light cigars. I compare the version narrated by her to the journalist, folklorist and anthropologist Norton Correa in 1980 with similar stories by her grandsons, during the decade of 2010. I study its role in the conceptions of slavery and freedom and its impact in the familiar identity.