{"id":235604,"date":"2017-03-29T16:56:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=235604"},"modified":"2017-03-29T16:56:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T19:56:11","slug":"unity-from-a-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/unity-from-a-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity from a distance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Immigrant

Unicamp Memory Center (CMU), collection of the S\u00e3o Paulo Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (SACOP)<\/span><\/a> Immigrant family in the Rio Claro countryside, between 1904 and 1908Unicamp Memory Center (CMU), collection of the S\u00e3o Paulo Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (SACOP)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Italians immigrants to inland S\u00e3o Paulo State between the late 19th and early 20th century did not recognize themselves as belonging to a homeland. They identified more strongly with the traditions and dialects of their home regions, but then came to build their \u201cItalianness\u201d in Brazil. The process of discovering their Italian identity as immigrants working in the state\u2019s coffee-growing regions was the subject of four research studies and is described in the book Italianidade no interior paulista \u2013 Percursos e descaminhos de uma identidade \u00e9tnica<\/em> (1880-1950), [Italianness in inland S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 paths and detours to an ethnic identity (1880-1950)] by Oswaldo Truzzi, an engineer who holds a PhD in social sciences the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and is a professor in the graduate programs in sociology and production engineering at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar).<\/p>\n

In the late 19th century, the Promotion of Immigration Society \u2013 established by farmers in rural S\u00e3o Paulo to encourage immigrants to come to Brazil to work in coffee farming \u2013 and the S\u00e3o Paulo State government entered into agreements with the Italian government to bring in people who could replace slave laborers on the coffee plantations.<\/p>\n

Italy was interested in relieving its own social pressures through emigration.\u00a0 Brazil, primarily in its rural areas, was facing a labor shortage as a result of the process of industrialization. According to data compiled by the Center for Population Studies of the University of Campinas (NEPO-Unicamp), the population of S\u00e3o Paulo in 1886 stood at 1.2 million. Immigrants accounted for 4.74% of this total.\u00a0 Most were Italians, constituting 13,490 (37%), Spanish who made up 9,853 (27%) and Germans who numbered 4,838 (13%). Of the 4.1 million foreigners who entered Brazil between 1866 and 1934, 56% settled in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo where Italians also made up the largest share.<\/p>\n

In 1902, the Italian government eliminated its travel subsidies for immigrants after concluding that the working conditions on Brazilian coffee plantations were not good.\u00a0 Even so, according to the 1920 census, there were 389,000 Italians in the state, 308,000 of whom were outside of the capital.\u00a0 The Italians then represented 48% of all foreigners in the state, followed by the Spanish (21%) and the Portuguese (20%).\u00a0 The state population stood at 4,592,188 according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) for that same year.\u00a0 From 1870 to 1920, IBGE also indicated that Italians accounted for 42% of all immigrants in Brazil, totaling 1.4 million people.<\/p>\n

\"Cotton

Unicamp Memory Center (CMU), collection of the S\u00e3o Paulo Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (SACOP)<\/span><\/a> Cotton workers in Americana, between 1907 and 1910Unicamp Memory Center (CMU), collection of the S\u00e3o Paulo Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (SACOP)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

On the farms, Italians worked side by side with immigrants from other countries \u2013 like Spain and Portugal \u2013 as well as with former slaves and their descendants who had remained in the rural areas after they were freed. From the outset, immigrants tried to distinguish themselves from the black population, identified with slave labor.\u00a0 It was the contact Italians had with other nationalities and ethnicities that helped promote a common identity \u2013 an Italianness \u2013, because in Brazil they were no longer identified by their regional origins.\u00a0 Instead of Calabrians, Romans, Neapolitans or Venetians, they were called Italians.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies by Truzzi are the first to reveal an overview of all of rural S\u00e3o Paulo State, which received 70% of the Italian immigrants to Brazil,\u201d says Angelo Trento, retired Italian professor of Latin American History at Naples Eastern University in Italy.\u00a0 Previous studies on Italian immigration had already addressed the large cities, rural areas and inland cities.\u00a0 Truzzi consulted newspapers, civil registries, city councils, business associations and immigrant museum collections in the cities of S\u00e3o Carlos, Araraquara, Catanduva, Bauru, Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto and Franca, in addition to consulting studies conducted by other researchers on Ja\u00fa, Jaboticabal, Rio Claro, Descalvado, Bebedouro and Pedrinhas.<\/p>\n

Truzzi suggests that these immigrants developed the feeling of belonging to a specific country of origin even before their contemporaries in Italy.\u00a0 The Italian unification had occurred just before the great immigration to Brazil.\u00a0 Until then, Italy was made up of various kingdoms, each with its own monetary and political systems.\u00a0 The kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the wealthiest and most industrialized, interested in expanding its market and influence, led the fight for Italian unification. Despite the fact that the kingdom of Italy was founded in 1861, the process was completed only after conflicts that resulted in the annexation of Venice (1866), Rome (1870) and much later, Trent and Trieste (1918). Truzzi holds that the resistance of certain parts of the peninsula in taking part in nation-building would have delayed the development of the feeling of Italianness in Italy, while in Brazil, that process would have begun in the early years of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\"Above,

Museum of Image and Sound \u2013 Araraquara<\/span><\/a> Above, team from the Palestra It\u00e1lia soccer club (undated<\/em>)Museum of Image and Sound \u2013 Araraquara<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Italian cultural diversity was reflected in Brazil.\u00a0 According to historian Siqueira Teixeira, postdoctoral fellow in social sciences at the School of Sciences and Letters of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (Unesp), Araraquara campus, during the early decades of immigration, only a tiny minority of literate individuals spoke the vernacular, the native language of a country.\u00a0 Despite this, the feeling of sharing a common origin was stronger.\u00a0 \u201cBeing in a place full of \u2018others\u2019 helps build an \u2018us\u2019,\u201d says historian Jo\u00e3o F\u00e1bio Bertonha, a professor in the history department of the State University of Maring\u00e1 (Paran\u00e1 State), who agrees with the claim that the feeling of belonging to an Italian nation was born in Brazil, with the caveat that a national sentiment was also in full bloom at the time in Italy. He believes that there was already a burgeoning national identity among these immigrants, stimulated by the process of unification.<\/p>\n

Truzzi explains that after coming in contact with different nationalities of people on the coffee plantations, some of the Italians migrated to the cities following the agrarian crisis of 1930 (when increased coffee production coincided with reduced exports). Physical proximity fostered the connections among immigrants and assisted in their developing the sense of Italianness.\u00a0 In the cities, Italians were already engaged in occupations such as blacksmith, mechanic, engineer, carpenter, locksmith, bricklayer, coppersmith and tinker.\u00a0 Immigrants from various origins practically monopolized such jobs, helped by the loyalty of fellow Italians who were their customers and by prejudice against lower class Brazilians, mostly made up of former slaves and rural workers who were viewed as uncouth Truzzi says that foreigners and their descendants filled the void that was created by an earlier social structure that was polarized between masters and slaves. \u201cSince the economy was growing, there were opportunities for immigrants to become integrated without having to compete,\u201d says the researcher.<\/p>\n

Affirmation as a group manifested itself with the establishment of associations in the form of mutualist organizations that offered health care services, or sporting and cultural societies.\u00a0 An ethnic press emerged at the same time, publishing newspapers in Italian starting in the 1880s.\u00a0 These newspapers carried news from Italy and articles on topics of interest to immigrants in Brazil. They acted as spokespersons for the community\u2019s concerns, which included calls for better working conditions on the farms.\u00a0 Another factor cited by Truzzi was the network of consular representatives which, at the initiative of the Italian government, were set up in medium-sized cities in inland S\u00e3o Paulo beginning in the early 20th century.\u00a0 Such representatives formed a link with the vice-consulate of Campinas, which reported to the consulate in the capital.\u00a0 Such a network was established because more than \u00be of the Italians lived in inland areas.\u00a0 \u201cNewspapers in Italian and Italian schools founded in Brazil starting in the early decades of the 20th century that gave instruction in the vernacular played an essential role in weakening regional ties and unifying the Italian language.\u00a0 When Benito Mussolini rose to power in 1922, he expended a tremendous effort to promote the Italian language in Italy and beyond,\u201d says Rosane Teixeira.<\/p>\n

\"A

Lopes, L.V., Araraquara Photographic Memory<\/span><\/a> A 1910 class at the Italian school, both in AraraquaraLopes, L.V., Araraquara Photographic Memory<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Beginning in 1937, with the advent of the Estado Novo, the term used to refer to the Get\u00falio Vargas regime 1937-1945, Vargas wanted to promote Brazilian nationalism by suppressing the existence of ethnic associations.\u00a0 Vargas encouraged the establishment of unions and trade associations that promoted fellowship among workers, regardless of origin. When they saw that the glorification of Italian identity did not fit the new Brazilian political-economic scenario, immigrants and their descendants stopped emphasizing ties to their former homeland.\u00a0 Through his research of city councils in the cities he studied, Truzzi observed, starting in 1948, the presence of Italians and their descendants in the role of councilman, which suggests a process of upward mobility and integration into Brazilian society.<\/p>\n

According to Angelo Trento, recent studies show that the discovery of Italianness in the foreigner occurred differently in other countries of the Americas.\u00a0 In the United States, for example, the government forced immigrants to Americanize.\u00a0 Because of this, Italianness developed as a defense mechanism, and the Italians spent more time closed up in their communities.<\/p>\n

\"Rio

Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Pr\u00f3-mem\u00f3ria (FPM), S\u00e3o Carlos<\/span><\/a> Rio Claro weekly newspaper (June 7, 1908) written in Italian: topics of interest to the communityFunda\u00e7\u00e3o Pr\u00f3-mem\u00f3ria (FPM), S\u00e3o Carlos<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Some groups of immigrants, like the Japanese, experienced just the opposite of what occurred with the Italians.\u00a0 With regard to the feeling of belonging to the nation, the Japanese government had cultivated a national identity among its citizens since the 17th century, says Shozo Motoyama, faculty member in the Department of History at the School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FFLCH-USP). That nationalism was reinvigorated with the advent of the Meiji period in 1868, when rulers forged the myth of the monarch\u2019s divine origin.\u00a0 With the Japanese victories in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), these convictions were strengthened, and thus Japanese immigrants to Brazil from the earliest years of the 20th century had a strong national identity.\u00a0 However, the distance and difficulties in communicating with the country of origin provided an opening to the local culture that allowed for the formation of a more flexible and hybrid Japanese culture in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Book<\/strong>
\nTRUZZI, O. Italianidade no interior paulista \u2013 Percursos e descaminhos de uma identidade \u00e9tnica<\/strong> (1880-1950<\/strong>). S\u00e3o Paulo: Unesp, 2016, 138 p.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italians in Brazil developed the notion of Italianness ","protected":false},"author":601,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[201,222,241,261],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-235604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-anthropology","tag-demography","tag-history","tag-sociology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235604"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}