Boundary Change
and Political Participation of Immigrants’ Descendants in Urban Contexts:
The Case of Sao Paulo (Brazil) Coffee Economy*
Oswaldo Mario Serra Truzzi
(UFSCar – Universidade Federal de São Carlos)
Introduction
The theoretical perspective that ethnic identities should not be essentialized but seen as
relational and situational identities led to the conception that the construction and
maintenance of ethnic boundaries depend on how ethnic groups integrate and categorize
themselves and others.
Ethnic agents, both individual and institutional, redefine socialization and expression
patterns, changing the ethnic narratives into “diacritic signs”. Cultural contrastitivity no
longer depends on an external observer who takes objective differences into account,
but depends solely on differences that are considered significant to the agents.
Therefore, the symbols and signs that set the group in motion and represent it are not
fixed, and can, over time, be valued or ignored by members of the group. As a product
of constant reinterpretation of the group’s ethnic history, ethnic boundaries shift,
influenced by the perception of the agents on both sides of the boundary, redefining
criteria for belonging and, consequently, the us/them dichotomy (Barth, 1998).
If ethnic boundaries are not fixed over time, nor are the criteria for a sense of belonging
between mainstream and outsiders, how do the change processes develop? By
addressing the specific problem of how ethnic boundaries change, Alba and Nee define
three different processes that can occur and are related to the definition of boundaries:
crossing, blurring, and shifting.
The first process corresponds to the classic version of individuals who are accepted into
the mainstream, despite their respective social extractions. The second case conforms to
the notion that a precise definition of a social boundary faded: namely, it became less
clear. Lastly, boundary-shifting processes tend to redefine the boundary, converting
This paper integrates the project “Observatório das Migrações em São Paulo: fases e faces do
fenômeno no Estado de São Paulo”, coordinated by Rosana Baeninger and financed by
FAPESP.
*
outsiders into insiders and vice versa. In practice, such processes can occur
simultaneously, with the predominance of one specific process in a certain historical
situation.
Boundary change can be related to the problem of the political integration of
immigrants and their descendants into a certain host society, especially the issue
regarding their acceptance and integration into local political elites. The objective of
this paper is to apply the boundary change metaphor to analyze the political integration
of immigrants and their descendants in medium-sized cities in the provinces of São
Paulo state, Brazil. For half a century, between 1880 and 1930, those cities received a
substantial number of immigrant families who came to work in the coffee economy of
those regions.
Indeed, between 1870 and 1950 Brazil received around 4 million immigrants, mostly
Europeans. The arrival of immigrants increased exponentially after the overdue
abolition of slavery, which occurred in May, 1888. Among the regions that received the
greatest number of immigrants was the state of São Paulo, which hosted around 60
percent of this contingent (Bassanezi et al., 2008).
From the last decades of the 19th century, the western São Paulo state contributed most
to boosting development of the coffee economy. While the state capital concentrated on
the commercial and financial functions related to coffee businesses, the coffee
plantations, one by left, left the Vale do Paraíba region – where they had been
established using slavery – to reach the fertile lands of the Paulista western region, in a
process of continuous expansion of the agricultural boundary that demanded immigrant
labor.
The medium-sized cities1 in which the political insertion of immigrants and their
descendants will be studied were located in this very region. In 1920, three-quarters of a
total of 830,000 immigrants hosted by the state were located in the provinces, whereas
one quarter lived in the state capital (Camargo, 1952).
Since the boundary change processes described earlier – crossing, blurring, and shifting
– were conceived as ideal types (i.e., as an analytical resource), only an approximate
1
The cities studied were Araraquara, Ribeirão Preto, Franca, Bauru, Catanduva, and São José
do Rio Preto.
connection of those processes with specific historical periods can be established. For the
purposes of this study, three different periods will be analyzed, in which each of those
processes occurred more intensively: the first three decades of the 20th century, the
period between 1930 and 1945, and the years following World War II.
1.
Up to 1930
The literature on local power during the period known as the “Old Republic” in Brazil
indicates a political structure closed to social sectors other than landowners. In general,
the landowner colonels were central figures in the power relationships established in the
cities, even though their domain was not monolitical, and there were often two factions
(both affiliated to the Paulista Republican Party [PRP]) that disputed and alternated
power.
Private power used the electoral strength to “lend them political prestige, natural
crowning of their privileged economical and social situation as landowners” (Leal,
1975, p.23). In addition to land ownership, private power was based on the isolation of
the cities, so that the colonels remained the only mediators to the state and federal
governments, even if the former exhorbitated their power as political leaders in the
cities.
In São Carlos, for example, although there were rival political factions, two colonels
monopolized any kind of function that could bring them a position of power or
authority: council member (alderman), mayor (or intendant), judge, prosecutor, and
police chief. In 1905, an attorney in the city complained with indignation of the control
assumed by the colonels over the prosecutors: “since they were indicated freely, they
could be fired. Therefore, the daily observed consequence is that if they do not satisfy
the first inconvenient solicitation of a politician, they are fired and are held grudge
against themselves” (Faria, 1905:22).
The pretense of any element – namely, not belonging to the power circle defined by the
elites – to hold a political position was considered impertinent. An almanac published in
São Carlos in 1915 congratulated the Italian colony for staying out of those circles.
“Aware of their nationality, they did not attempt, with rare exceptions, to hold political
offices, and instead, holding considerable respect for national institutions, they joined
charitable, cultural, and patriotic organizations” (Luca, 1928; apud Truzzi, 2000, p.89).
Hence, the relative scarcity of individuals of immigrant origin in the Municipal Council
of the seven cities studied is noteworthy. Nevertheless, there were specific instances of
immigrants who crossed the boundary, daring to hold political offices such as council
member or – less frequently – mayor in the period studied. Only in exceptional
circumstances did immigrants have access to the political elite, and the factors that
contributed most to their presence in political offices were: 1) family ties, in some
cases; 2) economic success; and 3) the holding of a Certificate of Higher Education.
1.1 Family Ties
Among the few foreigners who held municipal political offices up until 1930 were
Américo Danielli (mayor of the city of Araraquara between 1908 and 1910), Leo Lerro
(mayor of the city of São José do Rio Preto between 1913 and 1917), and Américo
Blois (vice-mayor of the city of Bauru between 1913 and 1916 and mayor in 1914) –
all of Italian origin, and Arthur Diederichsen, the son of a German immigrant, who
married the great-granddaughter of José Bonifácio (Brazilian Independence Patriarch)
and became the first intendant of Ribeirão Preto in 1892.
With the exception of these cases, in the four decades between 1890 and 1930 in the
seven cities studied, only members of traditional families who belonged to the coffee
oligarchy were city political leaders.
In the four above-mentioned instances, the
immigrants who held political offices were married to members of traditional families
of the rural oligarchy.2
Nonetheless, this was not the pattern observed among council members, where we can
find the precocious entry of some immigrants or their descendants into politics.
Although there are certain cases like that of Aurélio Civatti (member of the City
Council in 1887 in São Carlos), an Italian architect who married one of the heirs of a
major landowner in the city of Limeira,3 the most common way into politics lay in
accentuated economic mobility, in which holding a Certificate of Higher Education
could work either as an element of distinction between immigrants or as a connection
with the restricted oligarchic elites’ circle.
In some instances, it is also worth mentioning the links between such leaderships and
their respective ethnic groups, observed in the associations widely spread among the
major migration flows, especially Italian.
2
Danielli, Lerro, and Blois married women from the Xavier de Mendonça, Oliveira, and
Villaça families, who owned lands in their respective cities.
3
She was the granddaughter of Bento Manoel de Barros (Barão de Campinas), one of the
founders of Limeira (Busch, 1967, p.227).
1.2. Strong economic mobility
In this regard, the most successful elements of the respective immigrant colonies are
noted. Since Italians composed the most important contingent in the cities, the majority
of the cases observed belonged to this group.
These men were immigrants who grasped the opportunity provided by the coffee
economy to succeed economically. In the city of São Carlos, examples include
Giovanni Angelo Appratti (1908-1917), João Priester, and Aldo Giongo (both 19231929).4 Although each of the men became farmers, their initial capital was obtained
from industrial or commercial transactions.
Appratti owned a bank that practically monopolized the imports and remittances of the
large Italian community to their home country. Priester was a coffee buyer, whereas
Giongo and his brothers were the owners of one of the largest sawmills in São Carlos.
Likewise, in Araraquara, the Italian immigrant Pietro Galeazzi, owner of Casa da
Âncora, one of the largest import stores and distributors of goods to the neighboring
cities, became a council member in 1918. 5
It is worth mentioning Joaquim da Silva Martha in the city of Bauru. He was a
Portuguese immigrant who owned a cotton-processing business as well as a sawmill and
a hotel (Hotel Estação), and he was a council member between 1924 and 1928.6
In the city of Franca, Ricardo Pucci replaced a council member in 1928 and was elected
to the City Council under the Constitutionalist Party in 1936. As well as owning a
publishing house and the most important local newspaper (Comércio de Franca), Pucci
belonged to the family that created the Amazon Group (Pucci S/A), a conglomerate that
aimed at being the largest shoe manufacturer in Latin America and one of the largest in
the world.
In the city of São José do Rio Preto, the massive presence of a Syrian-Lebanese
community favored the entry of José Scaff, a Syrian immigrant, into the City Council in
1912. He was a merchant, but soon became one of the coffee plantation pioneers in the
4
The data in parentheses indicate the period in which the referred council member held the
office.
5
Araraquara City Council, Law number 1338, April 9, 1964.
6
http://www.daebauru.com.br/geo/logradouro.php?op=detail
region. One of his daughters married into the Jafet family in São Paulo, at that time the
most prosperous family in Brazil’s Syrian-Lebanese community (Truzzi, 2008).
Another example is that of the colonel Manoel Reverendo Vidal (1923-1928), a
Spaniard from Pontevedra, who had been a council member one decade before in the
city of Bebedouro.
In the city of Catanduva, despite the fact that the first legislature had only been
established in 1918, José Zancaner,7 an Italian immigrant who was a wealthy
landowner, replaced a council member. Subsequently, all city councils up to 1930 had
the presence of at least one council member of immigrant origin, which is a precocious
pattern of incorporation of these strata into local politics.
Because it had been established later, the city of Catanduva had from earlier times
featured immigrants as part of its local elite, such as the Spaniards Benito Sanchez
Salazano (elected in 1919-1920), Ramon Sanchez (1920-1924 and 1926-1928), and
Rufino Benito (1929-1931), as well as the Italians Luis Bassetto (1925-1926), Alfredo
Minervino (1926-1931), Ricardo Lunardelli (1926-1931), and Antonio Stocco (19291931).
The Spanish community in the city was large, and in 1926 the Spanish center, an
association managed by the community elite and serving also as a venue for their social
gatherings, was established. Ramon Sanchez owned a business, whereas Benito – who
was born in 1887 in Ciudad Rodrigo in the province of Salamanca – after establishing
himself in São Carlos, moved to Catanduva in the 1910s, where he was able to make a
good living in the area of agriculture and the marketing of coffee (Quaglia, 2004,
pp.229 and 200).
The Italian Antonio Stocco was of the most humble origin, but he managed to make a
living using at first a small rice- and coffee-processing machine that he later marketed,
representing companies from São Paulo city (Quaglia, 2004, p. 200). Stocco eventually
became a prestigious politician in the city. He was elected council member in 1929,
7
At the age of six, José Zancaner arrived in Brazil with his parents, who came from the Veneto
(cf. Álbum Família Zancaner, s/d). One of his sons, Orlando Zancaner, entered politics as a
council member in the city of Catanduva in 1950 and was elected senator in São Paulo in 1971
(Beloch and Abreu, 1984, p. 3589).
presided over the local Commerce Association in the 1930s, and was elected mayor in
1946 and again in 1960, after political re-democratization.
The cases of Minervino and Lunardelli are different, since they came from families that
had accrued considerable wealth in other regions of the state. At the beginning of the
1930s, the city of Catanduva represented an opportunity for the two men to expand their
businesses. Minervino opened the first bank in Catanduva in 1922. Minervino’s father,
Silvério, was already part of the Italian elite in the city of Rio Claro, and later would
found a bank in Araraquara;8 its headquarter would be run by his son, Alfredo, in
Catanduva. Alfredo served as a council member between 1926 and 1930, was reelected
in 1936, and served as mayor between 1937 and 1938 (O 14 de Abril, 1963, pp. 130-2).
Like Minervino, Ricardo Lunardelli (whose brother Geremia became the 3rd “king of
coffee”) was already wealthy when he arrived in Catanduva in 1924 (Revista…, 1925,
pp. 7-11). Two years later, he became president of the “Local Charitable Association”,
and soon became a council member, in which office he served until the City Council
closed in 1930. He was reelected in 1936, when he took office as the City Council
president. Therefore, it can be said that especially in Catanduva a large number of
immigrants and their descendants were already part of the local political elite from the
time the city was first established.
The most impressive case involving the economic ascension of an immigrant who
became a political leader during the First Republic is that of colonel Francisco Schmidt
from Ribeirão Preto. He arrived from Germany in 1856 at the age of six, and by the 20 th
century he owned around six million coffee trees spread out over various fields on 35
farms in the region of Ribeirão Preto; Schmidt employed approximately 3000
immigrants and 800 native Brazilians.
Schmidt’s political ascension is obviously related to his economic prosperity: In fact,
the Schmidts and the Junqueiras disputed over the regional political hegemony until
Schmidt’s death in 1924. Nonetheless, one cannot relate his spectacular trajectory to the
mobility he achieved exclusively to the rural work. Schmidt had purchased a grocery
store in 1878, and began to work as a coffee broker for Theodor Wille and Co. With his
8
It is likely that his brother, Luiz Minervino, a banker and capitalist, was his partner. He was a
council member for the city of Araraquara between 1891 and 1894 and also from 1902 to 1904.
earnings as a coffee broker, Schmidt was able to buy several farms in the cities of
Ribeirão Preto, Franca, Brodósqui, Orlândia, Araraquara, Sertãozinho, and Serrana,
among others. By 1913, he had become the largest coffee producer in Brazil, and was
given the title “king of coffee”. 9
1.3 Immigrants holding the title of doctor
Other possible boundary-crossing cases involve immigrants or their descendants who
made use of the titles that differentiated them from the majority of the migratory
contingent to enter into politics. The title of doctor – used to address a physician (or
medical doctor), pharmacist, engineer, or lawyer – had enormous prestige at that time,
and it was often held by descendants of traditional families. Therefore, holding such a
title was a sign of distinction that would bring an immigrant or his descendants close to
oligarchic elites.
In addition to having made an advantageous marriage, Danielli was also an engineer in
the city of Araraquara. In São Carlos, we can find the cases of the German engineer
Herman von Puttkamer, who became a council member in 1892, and the medical doctor
Vicenzo Pellicano, who had obtained his degree in Naples and became a council
member in 1911. In the city of Rio Preto, the Florentine Ugolino Ugolini, an engineer
who had been brought to the region to build the road between the city and the district of
Uchoa, was a council member for a short time at the end of the 19th century.
Leo Lerro, mentioned earlier, probably did not have a degree but established himself in
the city as a notary and later became a judge. Humberto Delboni, another Italian
immigrant, was a pharmacist and a farmer when he was elected council member in
1929. Finally, in the city of Franca, the first two sons of Italian immigrants to be elected
to the City Council in the Old Republic – Antonio Petraglia and José Fernando Peixe –
were medical doctors, whose social origins will be described next.
In the city of Franca, although immigrants and/or their descendants were not part of the
political elite at the time of the First Republic, their participation in local politics cannot
be ignored. The rapid absorption of illustrious people such as the pharmacist Caetano
Petraglia and the medical doctor Domenico De Lucca by the oligarchy of the city of
9
http://www.ribeiraopretoonline.com.br/ruasecaminhos_descricao.php?id=2519.
Franca deserves special distinction. Both men were considered immigrant bourgeoisie
according to Warren Dean’s definition: namely, immigrants who came to Brazil with
enough money to invest in lands, urban businesses, and commerce (Dean, 1971).
Petraglia, also a local Italian consulate agent, was one of the founders of the Paulista
Republican Party (PRP) in Franca (Di Gianni, 1997).
The good relationship between Domenico De Lucca and the local oligarchy can be seen
in the album of photos belonging to the Baroness of Franca, in which Domenico’s and
the Baroness’s children were photographed together (Álbum…). Nevertheless, the level
of participation of Caetano Petraglia was higher than that of Domenico De Lucca, since
Petraglia was a member of the PRP. Articles published by Petraglia in the Franca press
in 1902 confirm his free access to local politics, and demonstrate the best of his colonel
politics style. Not by chance, Caetano’s son, Antonio Petraglia, was the first council
member of immigrant origin to hold a chair in Franca’s municipal council as early as
1917. Antonio Petraglia served as mayor from 1917-1919, and in the following term as
well.
Two other sons of Italian immigrants participated actively in local politics in the First
Republic: namely, José Fernando Peixe, medical doctor, and Ricardo Pucci. Peixe was
elected council member in 1928 by the PRP. He was the son of Ferdinando Peixe, coowner of a small tanning concern in the 1920s. In contrast, Pucci was a member of the
Democractic Party (DP), and was elected council member replacement in 1928. He was
the son of Pedro Pucci, an Italian from Calabria, who had established a small tanning
business, a shoe repair shop, and a saddle shop in 1910. His business activities resulted
in one of the largest tanneries in the region in the 1950s.
It is clear from the previously mentioned examples that economic success or the title of
doctor enabled immigrants to hold leading political positions in their communities.
Hence, their success led to them being invited by the oligarchic colonels to be part of
the municipal council as representatives of their fellow countrymen. Therefore, some of
them were involved in ethnic associations: For instance, in São Carlos, Appratti and
Pellicano
directed the
Societá Dante Alighieri, founded in 1902, while Scaff,
community leader in Rio Preto and its region, presided over the local Syrian Charitable
Society from 1917 until 1926.
Humberto Delboni was president of the Societá Italiana Cesari Baptisti in that city, as
well as being married to the daughter of the Italian Consul in the city of Itu. In Franca in
the 1930s, Ricardo Pucci was a member of both the local Italian Society Council and
the Consultant Council of the first Franca’s Commercial Association (Correio de
Franca, 24/2/1935 e 16/6/1935). In the city of Catanduva, Rufino Benito (elected in
1929) was one of the founders of the Spanish Center, which was established in 1920
(Quaglia, 2004, p.92). Hence, in their respective cities, these men constituted the
immigrant elite, and often maintained close relationships with the local oligarchies.
In an environment that was totally controlled by landowner colonels, the presence of
immigrants or their descendants may also have had the ideological function of showing
immigrants the opportunities relating to economic and social ascension. If one of them,
a fellow countrymen, was accepted into the circles controlled by the elite, this would
mean that their origin or “race” was to some extent being recognized: namely, the paths
to economic and social ascension were open.
The question concerned how they could achieve this ascension. At that time, farmers
were striving to dispel any doubts they might have had: Success would come through
hard work. The immigrants had been brought to Paulista lands to work, especially in
coffee plantations.
With the exception of Catanduva, where immigrant participation in politics can be noted
since the beginnings of the city, this was the general scenario of the immigrants’
political participation in the Municipal Councils of the cities. The oligarchic regime was
able to create barriers to the participation of elements from outside of their circle, with
the exception of the cases referred to in this study. With regard to the immigrants,
certain other contingencies also mattered, such as the language barrier, lack of
education, and legal requirements, not to mention a deficit of knowledge regarding the
power game itself along with the elite’s prejudice against those who supposedly had
been brought here to work and not to enter into politics. Danielli, for instance, although
happily married to the daughter of an elitist family, and mayor from 1908 until 1910
and a council member in 1908 and 1916, experienced hostility and was taunted by
political enemies about his Italian origin (Tellarolli, 1977).
Thus, immigrants or their descendants who managed to overcome such barriers and
participated actively by serving as council members or mayors in local politics can be
considered typical boundary-crossing actors. Those setbacks diminished over time,
mainly as the political-institutional scenario changed, and as immigrant families became
more integrated as well as socially and economically prosperous.
2. Between 1930 and 1945
The period starting from 1930 marks the beginning of the local power reorganization,
which culminated in the extensive political participation of immigrants and their
descendants from 1945 onwards.
When Vargas assumed power in 1930, the political structure was forced to undergo
changes, thus providing opportunities for the ascension of new social groups. During
the fifteen years that Vargas first served as Brazil’s chief of state (1930-1945), the
country underwent drastic and profound changes. In addition to the economic
modifications, the new revolutionary government launched political reforms that led to
significant consequences for the structure of municipal power and for the composition
of local elites.
The 1930s comprised a period of considerable change in the electoral legislation –
institution of the secret ballot, creation of Federal Justice, achievement of voting rights
for women, and a reduction in the minimum voting age (from 21 to 18) – whose effects
were a vast increase in the number of electors. With regard to the earlier period, such
changes resulted in advances that reduced the gap between political rights in the
different population strata.
The fifteen turbulent years of the first term of the Vargas government had three different
sub-periods: the provisory government (from October 1930 to July 1934), the
constitutional interregnum (From July 1934 to November 1937), and the Estado Novo
(New State) dictatorship (from November 1937 to October 1945).
In the first period, the institutional inventiveness of the revolutionary power could be
witnessed through the creation of an intervention system, administrative departments,
and a wide range of technical-economic organs (institutes, autarkies, and technical
groups) to function as intervention tools and economic control.
The new regime promoted the first measures towards centralization, starting a very
different era from that of the coronelismo (oligarchic regime), in which each political
head of the municipality had almost complete autonomy to rule the local government.
Examples of such changes were the relevant roles assigned to federal inteveners in the
states and to the Consultative Councils, at the state and municipal levels, who assumed
the duty of the old Municipal Councils: to aid the mayor and to control his activities.
Notably, the composition of those councils established specifically that foreigners could
be admitted into those organs, which became a common practice among the major
municipal contributors.10 In several cities, the presence of new political actors – new
wealthy immigrants and middle-class independent professionals - can be noted.
Without a doubt, the Revolution of 1930 gave fresh impetus to urban associative
movements as a whole. Hence, it inevitably created new opportunities for social and
economic prominence to the strata – mostly of immigrant origin – that had been
formerly neglected. Nevertheless, the increasing strength of the associations thrived due
to the state that was financially and ideologically responsible for it.
New mechanisms of participation in the local decision process were established, such as
the performance of the commercial associations in each city, which thenceforth were
granted permanent admission into the local political life. It is worth mentioning that the
majority of these associations’ administrative bodies were composed of immigrants who
had established themselves as small entrepreneurs and merchants.
A noteworthy fact regarding the creation of these commercial associations is that many
of them started their activities in the immigrant association headquarters in
approximately the same period: in the Spanish Association in São Carlos, in the Syrian
Union in Araraquara, and in the Italian Societies in Bauru, Catanduva, and Franca. Such
boundaries suggest a strong continuity trend between ethnic and commercial
associations, which will be approached later. For now, suffice it to say that over time
10
Article 3 of the decree establishes that the Consultative Councils will be composed of three or
more members nominated by the intervener as follows: a) between one and three, within the
major municipal contributors; b) one, who was nominated by the municipal mayor; and c) one
or more, nominated as a free choice on the part of the state intervener.
the commercial associations strengthened, becoming strong interest groups in local
politics.11
In some cases, these associations assumed an important role in the local organization of
the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932. It is important to note that this episode, given
the extent of the mobilization of all social strata in every city, diminished the social
distances between old elites and urban sectors (workers, merchants, and entrepreneurs)
of immigrant origin. Social groups of very different origins were mobilized against a
common enemy, settling their differences and evidencing, for the first time in the cities
of São Paulo state, that immigrants who had first been brought to labor in the coffee
plantations were then requested to be part of a political episode, participating actively
and sometimes fighting side by side with local elite sectors.
If it is true that the new regime, at least in the first four years, did not make use of a
social matrix composed of strata of immigrant origin, the fact that the new political
actors were favored and stimulated to rise cannot be disregarded; most of them were
recruited chiefly because they were independent professionals and held degrees in law
and medicine.
Therefore, it can be said that certain changes in the political scenario occurred (although
including individuals from traditional families), which, together with the marked
presence of the intervener, scrambled the local political game and undermined the old
coronelismo operation. Together with the institutional reforms of the previously
mentioned electoral system, the changes led to a boundary that was less clear than the
one previously established between the elite of those who had free access to political
chairs and the rest of society.
From 1934 onwards, the rural-urban exodus increased due to the long agrarian crisis
that started with the Wall Street crash. It is worth mentioning that during the 16 years
between 1934 and 1950, the population of all the cities studied became mostly urban.
The urbanization process in this period is significant, since it weakened the political
power of the already shaken rural landowner classes, at the same time that it would
11
The hospital net created by the immigrants and their descendants, especially the hospitals
Beneficências Portuguesas and Santas Casas, is another example of an important mechanism of
insertion into the local social circle, which later in many cities facilitated admission into local
politics. The social clubs constituted another interesting indicator of the penetration of the
immigrant stratum into the core of local elites.
establish a potential urban electorate. Such a change modified the representation of
interests that would be expressed after Vargas’s restructuring of the State, which would
bring relevant institutional changes to the country.
The farmers’ loss of economic and political sovereignty also facilitated marriages
between their children and the children of successful immigrants. Noteworthy is that,
for instance, the first mayor (nominated in 1936) of immigrant origin in São Carlos,
João Sabino, was the son of an Italian immigrant who became wealthy and married the
daughter of a traditional rural landowner. Over time, this kind of matrimony became
common, a process that contributed to the boundary blurring between social strata.
The presence of immigrants and their descendants could also be noted in associations
and in workers’ and employers’ unions before the New State, and in political party
organizations created for the 1936 elections. In São Carlos, Araraquara, Bauru, and
Franca, for example, these men would be present as candidates in almost all political
spectra, including from the Communist Party to the Integralist Action, employer
associations, and workers’ unions.
The results of the only municipal election in 1936 highlighted the fierce dispute
between former members of the PRP party and the party organized by the intervener
and later by the constitutional governor, Armando de Salles Oliveira. Unlike what
happened in Franca, Catanduva, and São Carlos, where there was considerable influence
on the part of local commercial and industrial associations dominated by strata of
immigrant origin, the new party did not give immigrants political expression in the
cities of Ribeirão Preto and Rio Preto.
The new national constitution promulgated by the New State in November 1937
stipulated the dissolution of all legislative councils – federal, state, and local – in the
country. In the cities, the new centralizing approach concentrated most legislative
functions that used to be performed by Chambers in the Municipality Department, an
organ that would grow in influence, inspecting mayors and serving as a mechanism of
political transmission of the federal intervener in the cities.
The reestablishment of censorship characterized a closed political regime, making it
difficult to recover political activities - which were transferred from the parties to the
backstage - through the newspapers in that period. Mayors, however, were nominated
by federal interveners. Although always controlled by municipal authorities, the
increased presence of workers’ unions in the newspapers could also be noted. In
addition, the New State centralizing characteristic demanded recruitment to state job
positions. Many of the recruits were of immigrant origin.
Hence, the institutional structure promoted by the regime imposed by Vargas authorized
new individuals, formerly neglected by local politics, to participate in municipal
administration (although guided by mayors). Such a movement was not restricted to the
union sphere, but included the whole institutional network ruled by the federal
government and the state interveners.
After the 1930s, however, things were often difficult for those who had cultivated their
ethnic identities through associations; the New State destroyed ethnic associations by
prohibiting their practices, claiming to abolish political ideologies brought from abroad.
Thus, at the same time the New State regime adopted a strong nationalist ideology
restricting the activities of foreign associations (preventing their functioning most of the
times), it offered plenty of opportunities at the municipal levels of the bureaucratic
structure under formation, coordinated by the central power.
From an institutional point of view, the New State regime period on the one hand
consolidated the impossibility of engaging political activities through ethnic
associations; on the other hand, it represented the offer of opportunities and interests
from a professional or classist perspective.
In many cases, as mentioned earlier, the commercial associations founded through
ethnic associations – in which, by the way, urban merchant and entrepreneurs of
immigrant origin flourished – would continue to defend the interests of those elites,
which now were no longer defined ethnically but by socio-economic insertion criteria:
namely, class. It is especially important to note how, in the investigated family history
of some politicians, the alternatives to political insertion were redefined from one
generation to another, and how the “ethnic capital” became social and political capital
tout court, without ethnic affiliation.
Among a number of examples available is the Lupo case in Araraquara. Enrico Lupo,
born in Trento, arrived in Brazil in 1888 at the age of 11 along with his father,
stepmother, and four siblings. His father established himself as a watchmaker and a
jewelry dealer in Araraquara. Enrico married Judite Bonini in 1901, daughter of Italians
settled in the city of Bariri. Initially, he took over his father’s profession, and since he
was skilled in precision mechanisms, he started producing socks. In 1920, he founded
the sock company Meias Lupo.
As a successful Italian, he was president of the Italian Charitable Society in Araraquara
and founded a radio station, Rádio Cultura, which he used to defend the
Constitutionalist Revolution ideals. In 1936, he affiliated with the Constitutionalist
Party. His sons, Rômulo and Aldo, became deeply involved in politics. The oldest,
Rômulo, became an entrepreneur like his father. In 1936, he was elected council
member, and in 1951 he presided over the Commerce Association of Araraquara. Five
years later, Rômulo started his first term as mayor. His brother Aldo, born in 1911,
obtained a law degree from the most prestigious university in São Paulo in 1935 and ran
for mayor in 1947. He was defeated by the Adhemar Pereira de Barros candidate.
Thenceforth, he started his political career in the state capital, where he was the
secretary of Hygiene of São Paulo and was elected State Deputy in 1951.
As in other cases, the first generation made use of ethnic advantages to increase their
social relationships by participating actively in ethnic associations. The next generation,
however, entered politics through participation in commercial, professional, and sports
associations. This means that the ethnically based institutions (such as associations,
press, and schools) were repressed during the New State regime. They were purified and
converted in the next generation, mainly through activities in commercial, professional
(unions), and philanthropic associations.
The net of nominated interveners and mayors would contribute to the creation of the
party system structure and to the political leaderships that emerged during this period
favoring the clientelismo (state patronage). The state structure relied on resources to
create future political machines and parties, which would be established after redemocratization. Thus, the period from 1930 to 1945 seemed to be central to explain the
massive entry of immigrants’ descendants into the political elite during the period of
populist democracy that began in 1945. It was a transition period, in which political,
economic, and social processes weakened the boundaries between the old accredited
members engaged in politics (agrarian oligarchies) and the new group of agents –
mostly immigrants or their descendants – that aspired to enter politics.
Although they could not take advantage of their ethnicity, those sectors fortified
themselves through the classist associative movement and the opportunities to achieve
new positions, which weakened the earlier boundaries.
3. After 1945
The populist democracy period that began in 1945 brought new changes to national
politics with the creation of a pluralist party system, direct elections for all levels, and a
kind of political clash under the populism frame. The first municipal elections in this
period clearly indicated the end of the hegemony of the coffee aristocracy in municipal
political life.
Homogeneously, in all cities studied, there were significant changes in the social
composition of their elites beginning in the post-war period. The chart below shows the
political participation of immigrants during the First Republic period and from 1945
until 1960 in each city.
Table I
Number of terms of council members of immigrant origin
(1890-1930 and 1947-1959)
Catanduva
Araraquara
São
Carlos
M
ME
M
ME
M
189030
47
11
148
18
162
189030
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
0.23
0.12
0.09
0.10
0.07
0.09
0.03
194759
79
194759
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
ME/M=
0.51
0.35
0.48
0.50
0.56
0.39
0.35
40
88
31
83
Ribeirão
Preto
S J
Preto
ME
M
ME
M
15
165
17
106
40
94
47
88
Rio
Bauru
Franca
ME
M
ME
M
ME
8
95
9
129
4
50
86
34
88
31
M – Number of terms initiated in this period
ME – Number of terms of council members with foreign family names in the period
Obs.: In general, during the First Republic period, the tenure of a council member was a term of two years
and a term of four years from 1947 and 1959.
The average value of participation of politicians of immigrant origin in the seven cities
studied during the Old Republic period is 10 percent, whereas this value rises to 45
percent in the post-war period.
This is the context in which the presence of immigrants’ descendants in the Paulista
local politics is immense, as shown in Table II. In the cities studied, the frequent
presence of first-generation immigrants in municipal legislative and executive bodies
can be noted both in the first legislature and in the period from 1945 to 1964. This
phenomenon changed the composition of the local elites as well as the organization of
political power.
Therefore, this “novelty” in local politics in the seven cities is clearly indicated: a strong
insertion of Italian descendants in São Carlos, Araraquara, Ribeirão Preto, Franca, and
Bauru; Italians and Spaniards in Catanduva; and Syrians and Lebanese in São José do
Rio Preto.
Table II
Number of terms of council members of immigrant origin
(1947 – 1959)
Catanduva Araraquara São Carlos Ribeirão Preto S J Rio Preto Bauru
Franca
M
ME
M
ME
M
ME
M
ME
M
ME
M ME M ME
1947
23
10
31
4
27
15
31
11
25
11
29 11
31 8
1951
18
9
19
5
19
10
21
9
21
14
19 9
19 4
1955
19
9
19
10
18
7
21
15
21
13
19 6
19 9
1959
19
12
19
12
19
8
21
9
21
12
19 8
19 10
1947-59 79
40
88
31
83
40
94
47
88
50
86 34
88 31
M – Number of terms
ME – Number of terms of council members with foreign family name in the period
Obs.: Four-year terms
An important fact is that ethnic origin did not influence the choice of who would
comprise mainstream local politics. Therefore, the majority of the immigrants’
descendants who would enter local politics would not benefit from an ethnic vote. A
large number of the candidates elected to City Councils would not be representatives of
their ethnic groups, but were simply individuals who had experienced social mobility.
Even in the case of labor leadership, any reference to the ethnic group was indirect and
mediated by a professional group.
In Ribeirão Preto, for example, some labor party council members were elected thanks
to their activities in the beverage union, although many of the employees of the largest
local beverage company were of Italian origin and lived in Ribeirão Preto, in the
borough of Vila Tibério. Likewise, Vicente Botta was elected in São Carlos, based on
the popularity of an organization that was composed of tailors although, in fact, most of
them were of Italian origin.
It would be wiser to state that many candidates of Italian origin elected did not make
use of their ethnic origin but rather of an anti-oligarchic feeling. Indeed, in São Carlos,
Antonio Massei, the son of Italian immigrants, was elected mayor in 1952 because he
was seen as a humble individual who did not belong to the elite that traditionally ruled
the city. On a daily routine campaign, when talking to potential voters, he would say the
following about his adversaries: “They do not want me in politics because I am actually
a carcamano 12 just like you”, thereby strengthening his identity with the voters.
With regard to occupations, it should be stressed that most of the elected candidates of
immigrant origin were individuals who worked as independent professionals, medical
doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, and teachers, as well as entrepreneurs and public
servants. Therefore, they were not selected randomly but were carefully chosen from
among the immigrants. This reinforces the notion that those able to enter politics were
those who had experienced a social-economic mobility trajectory, present in some cases
as early as the Old Republic.
The abundant entry of these elements into politics evidences that from 1940 onwards
the boundaries between accredited and non-accredited politicians, especially regarding
the chairs of formal representation in the cities studied, effectively changed, thus
including the first generation (whites, by the way) of urban and relatively successful
immigrants.
12
A derogatory name given to Italians.
4. Conclusion
From 1930 onwards, the institutional change processes of restructuring the State and the
strengthening of associativism exceeded the existing urbanization and economic
differentiation processes in the cities studied, composing a “critical conjuncture” that
favored, in the long run, the political ascension of immigrants’ descendants. In every
city studied, such processes eventually integrated the political fractions of immigrants’
descendants who had already experienced socio-economic ascension.
Apart from special cases, defined here as boundary crossing, the coronelismo and the
bossism of the Old Republic prevented the political ascension of immigrants and their
descendants, who accounted for only 10 percent of the council member chairs in that
period, as indicated in Table I.
According to the data obtained, even after the 1930s, the permanence of coffee
landowners – who integrated the select group of those who had the power in the cities
studied – is significant. Furthermore, the political participation of immigrants or their
descendants in public representation offices decreased significantly in that period, since
there was only one formal election in 1936, at the municipal level. Nonetheless, the
apparent immobility of power in the period from 1930 to 1945 marked the beginning of
the reorganization of local power that culminated in the expressive political
participation of immigrants and their descendants from 1945 onwards.
Due to characteristics of the Revolution of 1930, centralization of the Brazilian State did
not mean marginalization of the economic interests that were dominant in the earlier
period, but rather a redefinition of the access channels and influence on the articulation
of those interests, both old and new. In addition, in the period that preceded the New
State dictatorship, political citizenship was fortified with the institution of the secret
ballot, with Federal Justice reaching women and people over 18 years of age, and with
the abolition of the cleavage between the social strata with and without the right to
vote.13
Although the representative politics of the cities were not very expressive in this period,
this did not mean local politics had frozen. Some institutions, such as commercial
13
Except for the illiterate, who were included only in 1985.
associations, began to thrive and achieved permanent entry into local politics. The
importance of those associations lies in the fact that in every city studied, most of their
leaders included immigrants who had established themselves as small entrepreneurs and
merchants.
The boundaries that defined the political establishment at the local level became
increasingly blurred. The mobilization of local societies in the period between 1930 and
1945, such as commercial associations, unions, hospital associations, or even newspaper
foundations, provided immigrants’ offspring with opportunities for political ascension
that their parents had never dreamt of during the First Republic, thus contributing
significantly to changes in the local political elite in the post-war period.
After 1945, the boundary actually shifted to include fractions of marginalized
individuals: The adoption of a multiparty system stimulated political competition and
the fragmentation of colonel power. In the first legislature, from 1945 to 1964, the
constant presence of immigrants’ descendants in the municipal legislative and executive
systems could be noted, changing the composition of the local elite and the organization
of political power in the cities. The average value of participation of politicians of
immigrant origin rose from 10 percent in the Old Republic to 45 percent after 1945.
Table III presents a general characterization of the first three periods of the Republican
regime in Brazil. To understand why the presence of council members of immigrant
origins dramatically increased in local politics when the democratic regime was restored
in 1945, we have to examine the previous periods.
Table III
Major characteristics of the Republican regime in Brazil
(1889 – 1964)
Period Power
Regime
Main
actors
1889 – Decentralized Oligarchic
State
1930
among states (“coronelismo”) oligarchies
(rural
farmers)
Electoral
system
Political inclusion Type of
at the local level
inclusion
Very
Very restrictive
restrictive
(few voters)
and fraudulent
1930 – Centralized
1945
(vertical)
Authoritarian
President
Inclusive for a
Vargas and short period
interveners and
absent
after
1937
(dictatorship)
1945 – Federative
1964
equilibrium
Democratic
populism
President
and
governors
Boundary
crossing
Restrictive through Boundary
formal channels but blurring
inclusive for new
social
strata
through
state
patronage
(“clientelismo”)
Universal
Inclusive for new Boundary
(except
for social
strata shifting
illiterate)
through elections
influenced
by
populist politicians
In summary, the agrarian sector’s loss of prestige and growing urbanization and
industrialization, based on the institutional changes mentioned earlier, profoundly
transformed the local political game, changing the social and economic mobility
channels, weakening the traditional bounding and loyalty, and stimulating political
competition. Politics acquired the characteristics of an autonomous activity, with
professionals skilled in disputing over votes, and whose interests did not necessarily
correspond to the economic expression that they achieved, such as had happened in the
old regime.
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