Tensions, disputes and ethnic and national conflicts in northern Brazil: the case of Portuguese workers in Manaus, 1890-1930

• Autor(a) principal: Pinheiro, Luis Balkar Sá Peixoto
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Ibero-Americanos
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/35888
• topic: Social history of labour; Ethnic conflicts; Immigrants; : Historia social del trabajo; Conflictos étnicos; Inmigrantes; História Social do Trabalho; Conflitos étnicos; Imigrantes

The arrival of a significant number of Portuguese immigrants to the Amazonian capital and their performance in the period comprised by the expansion and decay of the rubber export economy is taken as a motto for understanding the disputes and ethnic and national conflicts that materialized in the formation of the amazonian proletariat during the years 1890-1930. In spite of the insistence of working-class leaders to reaffirm working-class internationalism, relations between Portuguese and Brazilian workers in Manaus were tense throughout the period and often assumed worrying radicality, to the point of recalling the “fora galegos” movements that took place in various regions of Brazil in the second half of the nineteenth century. The article used the press as its main source, where it was possible to see that the use of derogatory expressions and adjectives thrown to the Portuguese – “galegos”, “pés de chumbo”, etc. – remained a common practice in the city, and was quite amplified among the workers, especially at the time of economic collapse, turning ethnic tensions into one of the most sensitive issues hindering the formation of a workingclass cohesive in their dimensions of organization, mobilization and struggle.