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SYMBOLIC CONFLICTS, DEADLY CONSEQUENCES: FIGHTS BETWEEN ITALIANS AND BLACKS IN WESTERN SÃO PAULO, 1888–1914
| By Karl Monsma |
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos |
| In early October, 1891, José Rodrigues de Sampaio, coffee planter in the município (district) of São Carlos, in western São Paulo, gave a dinner for his workers to celebrate the harvest. After dinner, the workers, most of whom were Italian immigrants, organized a barn dance. Several of Sampaio's Brazilian employees also attended the dinner and the dance. Zeferino Ferreira Lima, a black camarada (wage laborer) had invited a woman to dance when, according to his later account to the São Carlos police delegate, a Calabrian colono1 named Antonio Lariago "insisted... that he leave the lady and go dance with him, the aforesaid Lariago, to which he the interrogated responded that he would not do that because he had already taken a lady, to which the aforesaid Lariago, pulling out a revolver, said: that the interrogated had to dance with him, to which he the interrogated replied that in that case nobody would dance any more."2 Zeferino and the others fled the barn, locked Antonio inside and called the fazendeiro (planter). Sampaio, with Zeferino by his side, called out "Antonio, what is this, calm down and stop making trouble" and started opening the door.3 At this Antonio fired three shots toward the door, one of which wounded Zeferino on the side of his chest. |
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On another São Carlos plantation two years later, at an Italian wedding party, a group of black men and women from the plantation entered and began dancing. One of them, named Tachiano, began arguing with his wife. At this an Italian friend of his, Antonio Bartolomeu, intervened, striking Tachiano with an ax handle. Tachiano grabbed the ax out of Antonio's hands and hit him in the face with the blunt side of the ax head, blinding him in one eye, and fled with his wife4 |
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Reading police and court records regarding violent conflict between Italian immigrants and black or brown Brazilians, one repeatedly encounters situations of easy interaction and sociability that explode into violence. This was no segregationist society: Italians and people of color lived in the same neighborhoods, worked, drank, gambled and danced together, visited one another and formed interracial couples. Yet it was no egalitarian and color-blind "racial democracy" either. An undercurrent of tension menaced the everyday interactions of immigrants and Afro-Brazilians. |
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Even chance encounters could be dangerous. During a religious festival in 1906, mulatto Heitor Rodrigues da Silva and Italian Gaspar Sabino bumped into each other at the door of São Carlos's central church. Heitor held Gaspar by the arm, apparently trying to help him regain his balance, and Gaspar took offense. According to both Heitor and an Italian witness, Gaspar responded that he was not a cripple. In his own account, the words were stronger: "compatriot [sic] I am not drunk or crazy [for you] to support me." This started an argument between the two, continuing with an exchange of insults in the nearby public garden. Two Italian friends restrained Heitor to prevent him from attacking Gaspar, whereupon Gaspar kicked him. At this Heitor broke free, pulled out a knife and plunged it into Gaspar's back.5 |
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