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Paraguayans and the Making of the Brazilian Far West, 1870-1935*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert Wilcox*
Affiliation:
New York University, New York, New York

Extract

One of the most important aspects of the recent mass migrations of Latin Americans into previously remote regions of the hemisphere is the impact these have had on areas cut by international boundaries. With the exception of the United States-Mexico border, however, historical examination of the process is still in its infancy. And few observers have developed a satisfactory theoretical basis explaining an admittedly complex process.

One exception was Cuban historian Jorge Mañach, who spoke of “balanced” and “unbalanced” frontiers, largely in the context of the United States-Mexican boundary. He believed that power distribution between nations determined the degree to which their frontier interrelationships were equal or unequal. In Mañach's view, when a politically or economically weaker nation shares a boundary with one that is stronger, overall communication is sacrificed and the stronger power inevitably “spills over” into the neighboring region, economically and culturally.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1993

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Footnotes

*

This is an expanded version of a paper presented to the Western Social Science Association, 33rd Annual Conference, Reno, Nevada, April 24-27, 1991. The author is grateful to Warren Dean and to three anonymous the Americas reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the paper. Funding for this research was generously provided by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and a Dean's Dissertation Fellowship from The Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University.

References

1 For an excellent source on the recent study of the U.S.-Mexican borderlands, see Stoddard, Ellwyn R., et. al., eds., Borderlands Sourcebook; A Guide to the Literature on Northern Mexico and the American Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983).Google Scholar

2 Mañach, Jorge, Frontiers in the Americas: A Global Perspective, trans. Phenix, Philip H. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1975), pp. 1617.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., p. 15.

4 For some detailed studies of the concepts of “pioneer” and “expansion fronts,” see the following: Waibel, Leo H., “As zonas pioneiras do Brasil,” Revista Brasileira de Geografia, 17 (Oct.-Nov. 1955), 389417 Google Scholar; Velho, Otávio Guilherme, Frentes de Expansão e Estrutura Agrária (2nd ed.; Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Ed., 1981)Google Scholar; de Souza Martins, José, Capitalismo d Tradicionalismo: Estudios sobre as contradiçães da sociedade agrária no Brasil (São Paulo: n.p., 1975)Google Scholar; Foweraker, Joe, The Struggle for Land: A political economy of the pioneer frontier in Brazil from 1930 to the present day (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 There are estimated to be as many as 300,000 to 500,000 Brazilians living in Paraguay today. For this and more, see Laino, Domingo, Paraguay; Fronteras y penetración brasileña (Asunción: Ediciones Cerro Corá, 1978)Google Scholar; Nickson, R. Andrew, “Brazilian Colonization of the Eastern Border Region of Paraguay,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 13 (May 1981), 111–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Viladesau, Tomas Palau and Veron, Carlos, Una contribución preliminar para el estudio de la frontera en el Paraguay y su impacto socio-economico, Investigaciones Sociales, Documento de Trabajo No. 17 (Asunción: BASE, 1989)Google Scholar; Wilson, John F., Hay, James Diego, and Margolis, Maxine L., “The Bi-National Frontier of Eastern Paraguay,” in Schumann, Debra A. and Partridge, William L., eds., The Human Ecology of Tropical Land Settlement in Latin America (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989), pp. 199237.Google Scholar

6 de Assis Bastos, Uacury Ribeiro, Expansão territorial do Brasil Colônia no vale do Paraguai (1767–1801), Boletim No. 4, Departamento de História, No. 3 (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 1978), pp. 48181, passim Google Scholar; Williams, John Hoyt, The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979).Google Scholar

7 Relatório apresentado á Assembléici Legislativa provincial de Mato Grosso, pelo Tenente Coronel Francisco José Cardoso Junior, 20 de agosto de 1871 (Cuiabá, 1871), p. 51; Brazil, IBGE, Séries Estatísticas Retrospectivas, vol. 1, Quadros Retrospectivos (Separata do Anuário Estatístico do Brasil-Ano V-193911940) (Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 1986), pp. 124–25; Brasil, 1BGE, Séries Estatísticas Retrospectivas, vol. 3, Séries Econômicos, Demográficos e Sociais, 1550 a 1985(Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 1987), pp. 32, 34. The value of the mil-réis fluctuated over time, though tended to decline steadily in relation to the dollar. For example, income in terms of the dollar declined from over $1 million U.S. in 1920 to under $650,000 in 1935. The mil-réis was worth 48 cents U.S. in 1871, 22 cents in 1920, and 8 cents in 1935. The 1871 exchange rate is from: Brazil, IBGE, Séries Estatísticas Retrospectivas, vol. 1, pp. 63–64. The rates for 1920 and 1935 are from: United States, Federal Reserve System, Banking and Monetary Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Federal Reserve System, 1943), p. 664.

8 de Kostianovsky, Olinda Massare, “História y evolución de la población en el Paraguay,” in Población, urbanización y recursos humanos en el Paraguay, Rivarola, Domingo M. and Heisecke, G., eds. (Asunción, 1969), pp. 228–34Google Scholar; Carrasco, Gabriel, La población del Paraguay, antes y después de la guerra; Rectificación de opiniones generalmente aceptadas (Asunción: n.p., 1905), p. 9.Google Scholar The debate over pre and postwar population rages on. See Reber, Vera Blinn, “The Demographics of Paraguay: A Reinterpretation of the Great War, 1864–1870,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 68 (May 1988), 289319 [hereafter cited as HAHR]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Whigham, Thomas L. and Potthast, Barbara, “Some Strong Reservations: A Critique of Vera Blinn Reber’s ‘The Demographics …’,” HAHR, 70 (November 1990), 667–78.Google Scholar

9 Warren, Harris Gaylord, Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: The Postwar Decade, 1869–1878 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978), p. 225.Google Scholar This is the most comprehensive treatment in English of the immediate postwar period in Paraguay.

10 Colombino, Andrés Flores, La fuga de intelectuales (Montevideo: n.p., 1972), p. 60 Google Scholar; de la Dardye, Emanuel de Bourgade, Paraguay: The Land and the People, Natural Wealth and Commercial Capabilities (London: n.p., 1892), p. 233.Google Scholar See also Warren, , Paraguay and the Triple Alliance, pp. 116, 245–46, 259–60.Google Scholar Mato Grosso was huge. It was Brazil’s second largest province/state in territory after Amazonas, occupying over 1,477,000 square kilometers (570,000 square miles) until first divided up in 1943. Mato Grosso do Sul separated from the rest of the state in 1979 and totals 350,500 square kilometers (135,000 square miles). Brazil, Mato Grosso, Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Secretaria da Agricultura, Indústria, Comércio, Viação e Obras Públicas, Sinopse estatística do Estado, No. 1, Ano II–1936 (Cuiabá: Secretaria da Agricultura, 1937), p. 12; Corrêa, Afonso SimõesPecuária de corte em Mato Grosso do Sul,” unpublished report delivered at Encontres Regionais de Pecuária de Corte, 27 November 1984, Brasília, p. 1.Google Scholar My thanks to the author of EMBRAPA-CNPGC, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, for making this report available to me.

11 da Fonseca, João Severiano, Viagem ao Redor do Brasil: 1875–1878, 2 vols, (repr.; Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca do Exército Editora, 1986), 1, p. 317 Google Scholar; Relatório apresentado á Assembléia Geral dos Srs. Accionistas da Companhia Matte Larangeira, 1898, pelo Presidente Dr. Francisco Murtinho (Rio de Janeiro: n.p., 1898), Folleto No. 612, Biblioteca Nacional de Asunción [hereafter BNA], pp. 10–11; Colombino, Andrés Flores, “Reseña Histórica de la Migración Paraguaya,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología (Asunción), 4 (Jan.-Aug. 1967), 100.Google Scholar In terms of the number of Paraguayans working in the erva zone of Mato Grosso, Juan Carlos Herken Krauer estimated a total of between 4,000 and 6,000 workers occupied in all aspects of the industry, including those not directly employed by the monopoly company, Mate Larangeira. Herken Krauer, Juan Carlos, El Paraguay rural entre 1869 y 1913 (Asunción: Centro Paraguayo de Estudios Sociológicos, 1984), p. 83.Google Scholar

12 Pérez Acosta, Juan F., Migraciones históricas del Paraguay a la Argentina (Buenos Aires: n.p., 1952), pp. 1517 Google Scholar; Colombino, Flores, “Reseña,” p. 98 Google Scholar; Fogel, Gerardo, “Notas sobre los migrantes paraguayos en Misiones (Argentina),” Estudios Paraguayos (Asunción), 1 (Nov. 1973), 167 Google Scholar; Carrasco, , La población, p. 9 Google Scholar; Raul, Mendoza A.Desarrollo y evolución de la población paraguaya,” in Rivarola, and Heisecke, , eds., Población, pp. 2122 Google Scholar; “Storia della popolazione italiana in Argentina. Aspetti comparati con il Brasile e gli USA (1870–1930),” in Euroamericani, vol. 2, La popolazione di origine italiana in Argentina (Torino: Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, 1987), p. 592; Mitchell, B.R., European Historical Statistics, 1750–1975 (New York: Facts on File, 1981), p. 31.Google Scholar Italians did not emigrate solely to the Americas. At least as many had sought opportunities in other nations of Europe as across the ocean, which suggests that at any one time during the height of Italian emigration, 1901–1910, perhaps as many as 20 percent of Italians lived abroad.

13 Esteves, Luís Freire and González Peña, Juan C., El Paraguay Constitucional, 1870–1920 (Buenos Aires: n.p., 1921), p. 162 Google Scholar; “Notas Americanas,” Revista de la Escuela de Comercio (Asunción), 2 (Dec. 1917), 846–47; Brasil, Directoría geral de estatística, Recenseamento realizado em de setembro de 1920, vol. 4, pt. 1, “População-Estado de Matto Grosso” (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia da Estatística, 1926), pp. 408–09; Brasil, Ministerio de Relações Exteriores, Letter from José Pinto Guimarães, Consul general of Brazil in Asunción, Asunción, 23 May 1931, Documentos avulsos, lata 1931–L4, Arquivo Público de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá [hereafter APMT]. For the official population of Mato Grosso during this period see Table 2.

14 Romero, Genaro, Repatriación (Asunción: n.p., 1913), pp. 810 Google Scholar; Barrett, Rafael, El dolor paraguayo (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1978), pp. 93119.Google Scholar A Spanish socialist journalist living in Paraguay, Barrett wrote many articles in various Asunción newspapers between 1905 and 1910 condemning political violence, corruption, and labor exploitation.

15 Ayala, Eligio, Migraciones, ensayo escrito en Berna en 1915 (Santiago de Chile: n.p., 1941), pp. 3335, 42–45.Google Scholar

16 Esteves, Freiré, El Paraguay, p. 68 Google Scholar; Warren, Carlos, Emancipación económica americana, XVIII, (Montevideo: n.p., 1946),Google Scholar cited in Mellid, Atílio Garcia, Proceso a los falsificadores de la História del Paraguay, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Teoría, 1963–64), p. 484 Google Scholar; Pastore, Carlos, La lucha por la tierra en el Paraguay (Montevideo: Editorial Antequera, 1972), pp. 221–25, 253–56Google Scholar; Warren, Harris Gaylord, Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic: The First Colorado Era, 1878–1904 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985), p. 171.Google Scholar This process was not unique to Paraguay, of course. For several good discussions on the expansion of large landholdings stimulated by the growth of the export economy, and the impact on rural society in other areas of Latin America, see: Mallon, Florencia, “Murder in the Andes: Patrons, Clients, and the Impact of Foreign Capital, 1860–1922,” Radical History Review, 27 (1983), 7998 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCreery, David, “‘An Odious Feudalism’: Mandamiento Labor and Commercial Agriculture in Guatemala, 1858–1920,” Latin American Perspectives, 13 (Winter 1986), 99117 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knight, Alan, “Mexican Peonage: What Was It and Why Was It?,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 18 (May 1986), 4174 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and closer to home, Dean, Warren, Rio Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System, 1820–1920 (Stanford, 1976).Google Scholar For a study focusing on more recent developments in Brazil, see Fower-aker, The Struggle for Land.

17 Rivarola, Domingo M., “Paraguay: estructura agrária y migraciones desde una perspectiva histórica,” based on Estructura Agraria y Migraciones. El caso paraguayo, 6, Reunión del Grupo de Población y Desarrollo del Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), México, 25–29 July 1977, pp. 2021 Google Scholar; U.S., Department of State, Division of Latin American Affairs, “Labor Supply and its relation to Paraguayan Agriculture,” prepared by U.S. Consul Digby Willson, A., Asunción, April 7, 1925, Records of the Department of State (Paraguay, 1910–39), microfilm M-1470, Roll 10, No. 834.504/5, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar; Pastore, , La lucha, pp. 299, 402–05Google Scholar; Rivarola, Domingo M.,“Aspectos de la migración paraguaya,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología, 4 (Jan.-Aug. 1967), 51.Google Scholar One hectare equals 2.42 acres. It was estimated that in 1886, following the land sales, 82 percent of Paraguay’s adult population (over 14 years old) worked in agriculture. This further emphasizes the potential impact of the sales to the future well-being of the nation’s population. See González Erico, Miguel Angel, “Estructura y desarrollo del comercio exterior del Paraguay: 1870–1918,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología, 12 (Sept.-Dec. 1975), 126.Google Scholar

18 Puiggari, Umberto, Nas fronteiras de Matto Grosso; Terra abandonada … (São Paulo: Casa Mayença, 1933), pp. 2528;Google Scholar Barret, Rafael, “La esclavitud y el estado,” in El dolor, p. 122.Google Scholar Romero, , Repatriación, pp. 1112, 23Google Scholar; Warren, Harris Gaylord, Paraguay; An Informal History (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1949), p. 265.Google Scholar Such labor contracting was hardly unique to Paraguay. For dis eussions of similar labor regimes and debt peonage in other regions of Latin America during the period, see again McCreery, Knight, and Mallon, as well as earlier works, such as: several essays in the very valuable Duncan, Kenneth and Rutledge, Ian, Land and Labor in Latin America (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar; Guy, Donna, “The Rural Working Class in Nineteenth Century Argentina: Forced Plantation Labor in Tucumán,” Latin American Research Review, 13 (1978), 135–72Google Scholar; and Blanchard, Peter, “The Recruitment of Workers in the Peruvian Sierra at the turn of the century: the Enganche System,” Inter-American Economic Affairs, 33 (1980), 6383.Google Scholar

19 The establishment of saladeros (salted beef plants) at the turn of the century and the entry of canned meat facilities during World War I offered some seasonal employment, but their overall, and especially long term, impact in the job market was not nearly enough to relieve chronic underemployment. See Liebig’s en el Paraguay. Libro de homenaje en el centenario de la fundación de la Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company Ltd., 1865–1965 (Zeballos-Cué, Paraguay: n.p., 1965), pp. 81–83, 88–90; and United States, Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Survey of South America; Argentina and Paraguay, prepared by Leon M. Estabrook, Bulletin No. 1409 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, June 1926), p. 87.

20 Filho, Virgílio Corrêa, Histôria de Mato Grosso (Rio de Janeiro: Min. da Educação e Cultura, 1969), p. 553 Google Scholar; “Una emigración inconveniente,” La Reforma (Asunción), 2 (24 February 1876), 1. State subsidization of immigrants for the coffee plantations of São Paulo was crucial to the subsequent prosperity of the state and nation, and the experience in Mato Grosso, however brief, reveals the importance of the state in encouraging immigration. For the best study of immigration and internal migration to date see: Merrick, T.W. and Graham, D., Population and Economic Development in Brazil, 1808 to the Present (Baltimore, 1979).Google Scholar In addition, government investment in the shipyard reveals some willingness on the part of authorities to sponsor economic growth in the nation’s interior, although in the case of Mato Grosso this was not sustained. An excellent re-evaluation of official internal economic policy is: Topik, Steven, “The State’s Contribution to the Development of Brazil’s Internal Economy, 1850–1930,” HAHR, 65 (May 1985), 203–28.Google Scholar

21 Mulhall, Michael G., Journey to Matto Grosso (Buenos Aires: n.p., 1876), pp. 1516 Google Scholar; Fonseca, , Viagem, pp. 910, 13, 317Google Scholar; Letter written by João Lopez Carneiro da Fontoura to the President of Matto Grosso, Agència de Colonisação em Corumbá, Corumbá, 17 February 1876, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT; Warren, , Paraguay and the Triple Alliance, p. 268.Google Scholar Data on the number of Paraguayan women accompanying the troops were not recorded, as captains of the troop carriers refused to hand over passenger lists to the Corumbá port police. Perhaps a search of the Itamarati archives in Rio de Janeiro would uncover exact numbers.

22 Letter from Colonel José Angelo de Morães Rego, Commander of the Quartel de Commando Geral da Fronteira do Baixo Paraguay em Corumbá, Corumbá, 30 August 1876, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT; Letter of João Lopez Carneiro da Fontoura, Corumbá, 17 February 1876, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT; Fonseca, , Viagem, p. 317.Google Scholar

23 “Una emigración inconveniente,” La Reforma (Asunción), 2 (24 February 1876), 1; “Despoblación rápida,” La Reforma, 2 (26 February 1876), 1.

24 Letter from Colonel José Angelo de Morães Rego, Commander of the Quartel de Commando Geral da Fronteira do Baixo Paraguay em Corumbá, Corumbá, 30 August 1876, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT; O Iniciador (Corumbá), 4 (29 July 1880), 1.

25 Letter from Eduardo Callado of the Legação Imperial do Brasil em Assumpção, Asunción, 17 November 1876, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT; Letter from Eduardo Callado of the Legação Imperial do Brasil em Assumpção, Asunción, 5 January 1877, Documentos avulsos, lata 1876-D, APMT.

26 Fonseca, , Viagem, p. 317 Google Scholar; A Opinião (Corumbá), 1 (17 Nov. 1878), 1–2; Ferreira, J.J. Ramos, Juiz de Direito de Corumbá, “Report,” Corumbá, 26 January 1879, Documentos avulsos, lata 1879-B, APMT.Google Scholar

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28 Pimenta Bueno, Francisco Antônio, Memória justificativa dos trabalhos de que foi encarregado á Provincia de Matto Grosso, segundo as instrucções do Ministério da Agricultura de 27 de maio de 1879 (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Nacional, 1880), p. 90 Google Scholar; Grosso, Matto, de Corumbá, Coletoría, “Impostos de exportação e consumo, 1879–1880,” Coletoría Corumbá, caixa 1878 a 1880, APMT: 63a–73aGoogle Scholar; Brasil, Tesouraria da Fazenda Nacional em Mato Grosso, Alfândega de Corumbá, Capatazia, Guias de impor-tação, 1879–1885, rolos 06–09, Núcleo de Documentação e Informação Histórica Regional, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá [hereafter NDIHR].

29 Relatório de vice-presidente, Dr. José Joaquim Ramos Ferreira, devia apresentar á Assem. Prov. de Matto Grosso, 2a. sessão da 26a. legislativa de Setembro de 1887 (Cuiabá: n.p., 1887); Brazil, Directoría do Serviço de Estatística, Synopse do censo pecuário da república em 1912–1913 (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Official, 1914), p. 36; Grosso, Mato, Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Synopse estatística do estado, No. 1 (Cuiabá: Typ. A. Calhão, 1937), p. 35.Google Scholar

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31 Sternberg, , “Tentativas,” p. 49 Google Scholar; Endlich, Rodolfo, “A criação do gado vaccum nas partes interiores da America do Sul,” Boletim da Agricultura (São Paulo), 4:6 (1903), 278 Google Scholar; Stols, Eddy, “Les Belges au Mato Grosso et en Amazônie, ou la Récidive de l’Aventure Congolaise (1895–1910),” in Dumoulin, Michel and Stols, Eddy, La Belgique et l’Étranger aux XIXe et XXe Siècles (Louvain-la-Neuve: n.p., 1987), pp. 9697 Google Scholar; Roosevelt, Theodore, Nas selvas do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: n.p., 1948), p. 117.Google Scholar

32 Filho, Virgílio Corrêa, Ã sombra dos hervaes matogrossenses, Monografías Cuiabanas (São Paulo: São Paulo Editora Ltda., 1925), IV, p. 15 n.8Google Scholar; Report from Manuel Francisco Lopes, state government tax collector, to the government of Mato Grosso, Corumbá, 20 October 1923, Documentos avulsos, lata 1923-D, APMT; Várzea, Affonso, Limites Meridionaes. As fronteiras com o Uruguai, Argentina e o Paraguai (Rio de Janeiro: n.p., 1933), p. 141 Google Scholar; “Los yerbales de Matto Grosso y los obreros de esas regiones (Impresiones de viaje),” Patria (Asunción), 2 (6 February 1919), 1. In a visit to Campanário in 1942, American Alice Hager was told there were 6,000 workers in the region, well over half Paraguayan. Hager, Alice Rogers, “Mate empire. Campanário, huge plantation set deep in Brazilian Matto Grosso, is a jungle paradise,” Inter-American Monthly (Washington, D.C.), Aug. 1942, 13.Google Scholar

33 Corrêa Filho, Virgílio A., Ervais do Brasil e ervateiros (Rio de Janeiro: Min. da Agricultura, 1957), pp. 3035 Google Scholar; Arruda, Gilmar, “Frutos da terra: os trabalhadores da Matte Larangeira” (M.A. thesis, Universidade do Estado de São Paulo, 1989), pp. 125–28.Google Scholar

34 “Evolución de la Ganadería Paraguaya, 1870 hasta el presente,” Paraguay Agrícola Ganadero (Asunción), 5 (August 1967), 39–40; Arad, Irene, “La ganadería en el Paraguay: Período 1870–1900,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología, 10 (Sept.-Dec. 1973), 192–95.Google Scholar

35 A Situação (Cuiabá), 5 (15 August 1872), 2–3; Metello, Adriano, O Sul de Mato Grosso (Rio de Janeiro: n.p., 1937), p. 8 Google Scholar; Ribeiro Lisboa, Miguel Arrojado, Oeste de S. Paulo, Sul de Mato-Grosso; Geologia, Indústria, Minerai, Clima, Vegetação, Solo Agricola, Industria Pastoril (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. do “Jornal do Commercio,” 1909), p. 145 Google Scholar; Dionant, Franz Van, Le Rio Paraguay et l’État Brésilien de Matto-Grosso (Brussels: L’Imprimerie Nouvelle, 1907), pp. 161–63Google Scholar; de Melo, José e Silva, , Fronteiras Guaranis (São Paulo, Imp. Metodista, 1939), pp. 160–61Google Scholar; de Barros, Carlos Vandoni, Nhecolandia (Mato Grosso [sic]: n.p., 1934), pp. 3031 Google Scholar; Machado, Paulo Coelho, “História das ruas de Campo Grande; A rua 26 de Agosto; Artigos publicados no Jornal da Cidade, 1981/82,” unpublished (Campo Grande), p. 62.Google Scholar My thanks to the author for generously allowing me access to this source.

36 Ribeiro, Renato Alves, Taboco-150 anos; Baialo de Recordações (Campo Grande: n.p., 1984), pp. 3336 Google Scholar; Lucídio, J. Rondón, N., Tipos e aspectos do Pantanal (São Paulo: n.p., 1972), pp. 8790.Google Scholar The title coronel (coronéis pl.) was derived from the granting of honorary military ranks in the National Guard to allied land owners by the Imperial governments of the nineteenth century. The terms stuck, and all powerful regional potentates automatically received the denominations from local inhabitants. Today, doutor is used as a similform of respect, though most large land owners do not have university degrees.

37 Ayala, S. Cardoso and Simon, Feliciano, Album Gráphico do Estado de Matto Grosso (E.E.U.U. do Brasil) (Corumbá/Hamburg: n.p., 1914), pp. 167–71Google Scholar; Corrêa Filho, Virgílio A., “Terras devolutas: evolução do processo de adquiril-as em Matto-Grosso,” Revista do Instituto Histórico de Matto-Grosso (Cuiabá), 3 (1921), 6381,Google Scholar passim. It should be emphasized that this preference for European (and later Japanese) workers over local labor was common throughout southern Brazil and created some serious problems in terms of the division of labor over the period and beyond. For good discussions on immigration in Brazil, see Holloway, Immigrants on the Land; Merrick, and Graham, , Population and Economic Development; and Hall, Michael, “The Origins of Mass Immigration in Brazil, 1871–1914” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1969).Google Scholar Race relations are explored by: Fernandes, Florestan, The Negro in Brazilian Society (New York, 1969)Google Scholar; Skidmore, Thomas, Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (New York, 1974).Google Scholar; and Andrews, George Reid, Blacks and Whites in São Paulo, Brazil, 1888–1988 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1991).Google Scholar

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39 For detailed data on exports and imports along the border, see the series of reports from the Agencias Fiscais and Colletorías of various border posts, found in the APMT, Cuiabá; Mensagem do Presidente do Estado de Mato Grosso, Dom Francisco de Aquino Corrêa, 7 de setembro de 1919 (Cuiabá: Typ. Officiai, 1920), Annexo, quadro 5; Mensagem do Presidente do Estado de Mato Grosso, 13 de maio de 1924 (Cuiabá: Typ. Officiai, 1925), Annexo; Barbosa, Emilio G., Os Barbosas em Mato Grosso; estudo histórico (Campo Grande: n.p., 1961), p. 40 Google Scholar; Brasil, Ministerio de Estado das Relações Exteriores, Relatório apresentado ao Presidente dos Estados Unidos do Brazil, 1897–1898 (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1898), pp. 202–05; Great Britain, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, annual series No. 2121, Paraguay; Report for the year 1897 on the Trade of Paraguay (London: Harrison and Sons, 1898), pp. 4–5.

40 Lattimore, Owen, “The Frontier in History,” Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, 1928–1958 (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1962), p. 470.Google Scholar

41 Annual municipal report from Antonio Canale, Miranda, 31 December 1894, Documentos avulsos, lata 1895-D, APMT; Mensagem do Presidente do Estado de Mato Grosso, Coronel Pedro Alves de Barros á Assembléia Legislativa, 3 de fevereiro de 1902 (Cuiabá: Typ. Official, 1902), p. 47, MIC 05/068 a 088, 1892-1912, NDIHR; Mensagem do Presidente do Estado de Mato Grosso, Cel. Antonio Páes de Barros á Assembléia Legislativa, 3 de março de 1904 (Cuiabá: Typ. Official, 1904), p. 15, MIC 05/068 a 088, 1892–1912, NDIHR; Mensagem to Presidente do Estado de Mato Grosso, Cel. Antonio Páes de Barros á Assembléia Legislativa, 4 de março de 1905 (Cuiabá: Typ. Official, 1905), p. 25, MIC 05/068 a 088, 1892–1912, NDIHR. It is difficult to uncover sources of most estimates of contraband. Some observers estimated cattle smuggling at 20 to 50 percent of official export figures. Ayala, Cardoso, Album Gráphico, p. 292.Google Scholar See subsequent presidential reports for constant references to smuggling.

42 Corrêa, Valmir Batista, “Coronéis e bandidos em Mato Grosso (1889–1943)” (Ph.D. diss., Universidade de São Paulo, 1982), pp. 1213, 27 , 38Google Scholar; Viveiros, , Rondón conta, p. 205.Google Scholar For a larger discussion of coronelismo, particularly in the northeast, see Leal, Victor Nunes, Coronelismo, enxada e voto: o municipio e o regime representativa no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1948)Google Scholar; and Pang, Eul-Soo, Bahia in the First Brazilian Republic: Coronelismo and Oligarchies, 1889–1934 (Gainesville, 1979)Google Scholar; works on banditry also centered on the northeast, include Maria Isaura Pereira da Queiroz, Os cangaceiros (São Paulo, 1979); Lewin, Linda, “The Oligarchical Limitations of Social Banditry in Brazil: the case of the ‘good’ thief Antonio Silvino,” Past and Present, 82 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Chandler, Billy Jaynes, The Bandit King: Lampião of Brazil (College Station, TX, 1978).Google Scholar

43 Letter from Sabino Celestino de Goés, District Judge of Miranda, to the vice-president of Mato Grosso, Miranda, 7 May 1900, Documentos avulsos lata 1900-C, APMT; Corrêa, Batista, “Coronéis,” pp. 34, 92, 103, 104 n.49, 137, 181–82Google Scholar; Letters from Marianno Rostey, Director dos Indios Caduiéos to the President of Mato Grosso, Corumbá, 5 and 21 September 1902, 27 July 1903, Documentos avulsos latas 1902-D, 1903-A, APMT; de Pádua Bertelli, Antonio, Os fatos e os acontecidos com a poderosa e soberana Nação dos INDIOS CAVALEIROS GUAYCURÜS no Pantanal de Mato Grosso, entre os anos de 1526 até o ano de 1986 (São Paulo, 1987).Google Scholar

44 Corrêa, Batista, “Coronéis,” p. 137 Google Scholar; Letter from Charles Cooper, Paraguayan consul in Corumbá, to the president of Mato Grosso, Corumbá, 24 December 1907, Documentos avulsos lata 1908-C, APMT. For further information on the Tenente movement and its “long march” through interior Brazil, see Wirth, John D., “Tenentismo in the Brazilian Revolution of 1930,” HAHR, 44 (1964), 229–42,Google Scholar Carone, Edgard, O tenentismo: acontecimentos-personagens-programas (São Paulo, 1975)Google Scholar; Macaulay, Neill, The Prestes Column: Revolution in Brazil (New York, 1974).Google Scholar The term Brazilian Far West (Far-Oeste Brasileiro) is not a recent creation. It was used at least as early as the 1920s to describe conditions in the frontier town of Campo Grande.

45 Corrêa, Batista, “Coronéis,” pp. 179–80, 184–85.Google Scholar

46 Sodré, Nelson Werneck, Oeste; Ensato sobre a grande propriedade pastoril (Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio Editora, 1941), p. 189 Google Scholar; Póvoas, , Influências, pp. 2223, 28–31Google Scholar; Machado, , “Histôria das ruas,” p. 62 Google Scholar; Arruda, , “Frutos da terra,” p. 150.Google Scholar

47 Mensagem pelo Dr. Joaquim A. da Costa Marques, Presidente do Estado á Assembléia Legislativa, 13 de maio de 1913 (Cuiabá: Typ. Officiai, 1913), pp. 22–23, MIC 06/089 a 099, 1913–21, NDIHR; de Arruda Pereira, Armando, “No sul de Matto Grosso,” Revista de Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de São Paulo (São Paulo), 25 (1927), 225–67Google Scholar; Brasil, Directoría Geral de Estatística, Recenseamento … 1920, vol. 4, pt. 1, pp. 408–09; Sodre, , Oeste, pp. 89192 Google Scholar; Brasil, Ministério dos Transportes, “Abre ao Ministerio da Viação e Obras Públicas o crédito de 110:000$000 para as despezas de construção das linhas telegráficas entre Pôrto Murtinho e a fronteira do Paraguay e entre Goyaz e Boa Vista,” IT, maço 146, No. 8309, Arquivo Nacional do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro [ANRJ]; Rondón, Missão, Apontamentos sobre os trabalhos realizados pela Commissão de Linhas Telegráphicas Estratégicas de Matto-Grosso ao Amazonas sob a direcção de Coronel de Engenharia Cándido Mariano da Silva Rondón de 1907 a 1915 (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. do “Jornal do Commercio,” 1916), pp. 1415 Google Scholar; Brasil, Estudo dos factores da Producção … Campo Grande, p. 39; Grande, Campo, O municipio de Campo Grande em 1922; publicação da intendência municipal (São Paulo: Cia. Melhoramentos, 1923), pp. 9799.Google Scholar

48 Moutinho, Joaquim Ferreira, Notícia sobre a província de Matto Grosso seguida de um roteiro da sua capital a S. Paulo (São Paulo: Typographia de Henrique Shroeder, 1869), p. 130 Google Scholar; Bueno, Pimenta, Memória, pp. 9, 101.Google Scholar

49 A Situação, 6 (16 January 1873), 2; O Iniciador (Corumbá), 4 (9 July 1880), 4; Barrett, , “Lo que son los yerbales,” El dolor, p. 121.Google Scholar

50 Filho, Corrêa, Ervais do Brasil, pp. 6076 Google Scholar; Barrett, , “Lo que son los yerbales,” p. 132 Google Scholar; Corrêa Filho, Ã sombra dos hervaes, passim; Donato, Hernani, A selva trágica (São Paulo, 1948)Google Scholar; Arruda, , “Frutos da terra,” passim.Google Scholar The erva industry could in a sense be considered an enclave economy. It was self-sufficient in virtually all aspects of production and export, and paid only minimal export taxes and land lease fees. At the same time, it controlled the territory in which it operated with little interference from the Mato Grosso government. At one point the company even had its own police force, independent of the state force. For a brief discussion of enclave economies in Latin America, see: Cardoso, Fernando H. & Faletto, Enzo, Dependencia y desarrollo en América Latina (Mexico City, 1973), pp. 4853.Google Scholar

51 Melo, e Silva, , Fronteiras Guaranís, pp. 281–93.Google Scholar

52 de Melo, Jose e Silva, , Canãa do Oeste (Sul de Mato Grosso) (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1947), pp. 6771, 134–35.Google Scholar

53 Melo, e Silva, , Fronteiras Guaranís, p. 237 Google Scholar; Romero, Genaro, “Qué proporción existe entre el extranjero inmigrante y el paraguayo emigrante?,” in Expresiones de paraguayismo; Contestando a una encuesta (Asunción: n.p., 1934), p. 3 Google Scholar; Carone, Edgard, A terceira republica (1937–1945) (São Paulo: Difel, 1976), pp. 160–64Google Scholar; Foweraker, , The Struggle for Land, pp. 41, 46.Google Scholar Good sources in English for discussion of nationalism in the Vargas dictatorship include: Levine, Robert, The Vargas Regime: The Critical Years, 1934–1938 (New York, 1970);Google Scholar Wirth, John, The Politics of Brazilian Development, 1930–1954 (Stanford, 1970)Google Scholar; and Skidmore, Thomas, Politics in Brazil, 1930–1964: An Experiment in Democracy (New York, 1967).Google Scholar