This article seeks to put into focus the study of the relationship between "memory" and social belonging. Beginning with a critique of the objectives and tools advanced in Maurice Halbwachs's writings on "collective memory", the article embarks on a discussion of the social conditions that inflect upon the production of memories among people linked to a given social configuration. The empirical bases for the analysis are the recollections produced by peasant immigrants of Slavic origin - the "Rusyns" or "Ukrainians" - concerning their journey to Brazil in the end of the nineteenth century. The article starts with a critical study of Halbwachs's ideas on the relationship between "memory" and "society", and, after a brief presentation of the Ukrainian immigrants, explores the stories concerning their migrations in order to discuss the social mechanisms that impress upon their recollections meanings that both converge or diverge amongst themselves. It concludes by an examination of some of the implications of the analysis.
Collective memory; Ukrainians; Brazil; Social memory; Maurice Holbwachs; Immigration