This paper discusses the theme of cultural identities during the 1950's and 1960's based on a research done in a public school in the south of Santa Catarina aiming at investigating the processes of ethnic identity construction in the school during a period in which the problem of identity was not yet clearly developed. The research intended to understand the incidence of identity schemes related to social groups, ethnically characterized, and its relations to the most important public school in a significant immigration area in the south of Brazil. The notion of symbolic markers were used in the analysis of the identity relations at school and some social, cultural characteristics were selected as public recognizable signs of ethnic belonging which served as a borderline between belonging and exclusion.
cultural identity; ethnicity; public school
