Carolina Maria Ruy

Biography

I was born in São Paulo in 1977. I studied at the University of São Paulo's Geography Department, but even during my undergraduate studies, I got involved with the Communist Party of Brazil, where I started working at the Youth Memory Center. I participated in research and interviews with people who were part of the Communist Youth in the 1930s and 1940s.

After that, I worked as a researcher in institutions that promoted Institutional Memory Projects and, for a brief period, as an editorial secretary at the Princípios Magazine. In 2010, due to my work with history and oral memory, I was invited to coordinate the Union Memory Center, an independent and inter-union archive founded in 1980, but which was in decline. Along with a team of unionists, we worked to restore and reorganize the Center.

From then on, I started a major involvement with the subject and with various entities, publishing books and coordinating projects on the topic. I highlight our publications: a special magazine on the 100th anniversary of the 1917 General Strike in São Paulo, the book on the 60th anniversary of the Osasco Metalworkers Union, and the book on the 90th anniversary of the São Paulo Metalworkers Union.

In 2017, we created the Rádio Peão Brasil website, focused on unions and the world of work. Currently, I am the coordinator of the Memory Center and editor of the website. I am also part of the Advisory Council of the Maurício Grabois Foundation, linked to the PCdoB.

In addition to union history and memory, I am interested in politics and culture. I regularly write about unionism, the world of work, and films and series with a critical and social approach, even in commercial works aimed at entertainment. This interest led me to open a culture section at the Memory Center, focused on music and symbologies, seeking to awaken critical thinking.