WAITER, LEND ME SOME MONEY—I LEFT MINE WITH THE BOOKIE:

A CERTAIN MANÉ COCO AND SOCIABILITY WITH THE BAKERS AT CAFÉ JAVA

Abstract

The primary aim of this article is to analyze practices in the kiosks and cafés of Fortaleza that fostered networks of sociability within these venues. Such urban practices redefine cafés, showing they cannot be understood solely as commercial spaces; rather, they also become stages for distinction strategies by intellectuals eager to leave their mark and impart their own character. To this end, we adopt a focused lens on the triad—Mané Coco, Java, and the bakers. This relationship traverses the history of the city’s cafés during the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, offering a means to examine how a circle of intellectuals positioned themselves between an owner from the interior and an urban space struggling to survive amid the transformations of the Cearense capital.