Rosalba's Journey Part 1

The route by Rosalba's diary notes.

The route that we followed, originally left Sao Paulo in May 1648, and headed westwards along the Tietê River. At the point where this river joins the Paraguay river, a part of the troops, led by Antônio Pereira de Azevedo, split off the main expedition and went west to procure a booty in the Paraguayan Jesuit missions. Rapôso kept his route towards the town of San Fernando (the contemporary city of Corumba) where he and his men arrived by August. There they spent the rainy season and planted crops in wait of Pereira?s men. By May 1649, the whole expedition united, the men headed west through the Sao Jorge mountain range, crossed the Paraguay river, interned themselves in the dry lowlands known as the Chaco, reached the Guapore river (which marks the contemporary limit between Brazil and Bolivia), rafted downstream to the Madeira, reached the Amazon and in 1651 came out to the town of Belem. From there, it is supposed that they came to Salvador de Bahia and then back to Sao Paulo through the sertão.

Our bandeira started on November 2000 in the University of Warwick?s Library among the book shelves on Latin American history. We commenced our bandeira with dozens of questions. We wondered who had been the bandeirantes and if they can be regarded as the Conquistadores of the Spanish Latin America in the XVI Century. Morse characterizes the bandeirante as a New World creature, not a explorer, but a ?pathfinder? (Morse 1965, 3 and 4).

At the beginning, the Jesuit priest Antonio Vieira gave us an overview of what a bandeira had meant for Brazil as a Portuguese colony. Through Vieira?s work we came across with the figure of the Portuguese bandeirante Antonio Rapôso Tavares who had been until 1648 a rather typical slave hunter and raider of the Jesuit missions, to the point that Vieira referred to him as ?the infamous?. This figure was particularly interesting for us as we regarded in Antonio ?Raposo? Tavares? bandeira, a journey that gave shape to the political and geographical borders of the largest country in Latin America. Our own bandeira would attempt to explore in Raposo?s enterprise the answer to our questions.

We were particularly interested in the past and the present of paulistan culture in the city and the state of Sao Paulo as well as on the Gaucho (mounted men) culture in the Paraná basin. We considered that the Guaraní communities and their past relations with the Jesuits in Paraguay could help us to understand the cultural impact of the bandeiras on contemporary Brazil. Furthermore, we were attracted by the wood cutters, farmers and traders on both sides of the Brazilian-Bolivian border, by the Bolivian lowland and Andean populations (that were visited by an offshoot of Raposo?s bandeira) and by the rainforest communities - both Indian and ?Brazilian? along the Amazon basin rivers. In our banderia the communities in the exhausted agricultural regions of north-eastern Brazil, the colonial culture of Salvador de Bahia and its immediate hinterland (where the sugar economy of the XVI and XVII centuries flourished) and the sertoes of Brasilia along Raposo?s route back to Sao Paulo would complete the original route followed by the bandeirantes of 1648.

Our bandeira arrived on July 11th, 2001 to Rio de Janeiro. Our first contact with Brazil was through this amazingly beautiful and contrasting city surrounded by mountains, large beaches, favelas, high buildings, the Corcovado (The Christ of Redemption) and the Pao de Azucar.

In Rio we visited the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC) to meet with ProfessorsIlmar MatosandMargarida de Souza Neves both from the History Department and experts on Brazilian history. This first contact not only opened to us important research sources such as the National Brazilian Library and other academics all along Brazil, but it also established an initial link between the PUC and the University of Warwick?s International Office.

We spent 5 days in Rio de Janeiro (July 11 to 15) exploring ancient documents in the National Library and the colonial architecture of Rio?s downtown. We came across with relevant historical materials such as Taunay?s (1950) map of the Bandeiras Paulistas that described different routes on the XVI, XVII and XVIII century. During this ?academic? stage of our bandeira we started to consider two aspects of Raposo?s enterprise. In one hand, we wondered about the symbolic impact of this bandeira on Brazilian identity (brasilidade). In the other hand, I also wondered about the geopolitical implications of the XVII bandeiras on contemporary Brazilian borders. In some of the materials that I read (e.g. De Assis 1914 and Ellis Jr. 1938) the bandeiras of the XVII century were a constant enterprise of territorial expansion and Portuguese identity enhancement. In the beginning, the Portuguese bandeiras in Brazil were carried out by private entrepreneurs, then after the independence and with the subsequent political developments, the bandeiras became a State?s concern. In the XXth  century the last bandeiras continued ?as a project of modernisation and conquest over the vast natural resources of Brazilian territory? (Figueroa 1987).[1]

Before leaving Rio de Janeiro, the Saturday 14th we experienced the ?beach culture? of the city. In my mind it appeared as a democratic space of the city, as a common place in where cariocas exhibited a particular relation with themselves and nature. In Copacabana and Ipanema a natural sensuality seemed to flourish from this interaction ? human being and nature - that has become a particular feature of the city and the cariocas.

We left the city of Rio de Janeiro on the 15 of July and went to the city of Sao Paulo in the State of Sao Paulo. It was a six-hour travel by coach in which we had the opportunity to appreciate how both cities are linked by enormous industrial corridors. One of our first images arriving to the city of Sao Paulo was its dimension. I considered myself prepared to experience Sao Paulo as a person used to big and crowded places as Mexico City. However, through this city I experienced a sense of massiveness and immensity. I became fully aware about an urban space like this as we crossed immense avenues and streets. At the same time, the bandeira appeared as a concrete representation in common features of paulistan life: several avenues, streets, huge shopping centres, a lemon soft drink, bank?s branches, all of them received the name bandeirantes.

We spent in the city of Sao Paulo four days (July 15 to 19) keeping in our minds a central objective: we would try to explore the cultural contribution of the ?bandeiras? to the paulistan society and to the formation of the ?Brazilian? nationality. For some paulistan writers, the bandeirantes were as the ?Foundation Parents? that gave shape to the nation of Brazil as members of race of ?giants and heroes? (Ellis 1938). In Sao Paulo, we visited the Bandeirantes monument, a sculpture in rose granite that projected such condition of grandness. In those days we also visited the Paulistan Museum and Library to continue with our academic research. In that place I had the opportunity to read the works of Alfredo Ellis Jr. and Gentil de Asis Moura, both are recognised Brazilian experts on the bandeirantes.

For Ellis (1938, 37) Raposo Tavares contributed to improve the organization of the bandeiras through the military organisation of the enterprise and in this form he achieved the most complete outcomes.  For Ellis the bandeirismo?s salient outcomes are the successful penetration into the unknown hinterland and the geographical expansion of the borders, and in particular the bandeirismo was a successful instrument of civilization.

De Assis Moura (1914) goes even further and affirms that: ? the social event that history identifies as bandeiras paulistas was one of the salient factors of the geographical constitution of the country and the first Brazilian movement towards the occupation of lands and the formation of race. Therefore, the indigenous people and the nature were the main obstacles to defeat by the exceptional enterprise of the bandeiras? (De Assis 1914, 3-5).[2]

I became interested in a particular issue reading the work of De Assis Moura (1914). The author developed a racial argument of supremacy to differentiate the bandeirantes from the indigenous populations of Brazil. In this way, the author attempted to support his view of the bandeirantes as the original source of ?Brazilian? race and identity. In a discriminatory tone, very characteristic of his own time, De Assis Moura describes how the bandeirantes in their advance towards Brazilian interior lands ?successfully faced? indigenous people from different ethnic groups ?the Tupiniquins from the Tieté river, the Tamoyos from Cabo Frio, the Carijós from Guayrá and the Guaranis from Paraguay (De Assis 1914).[3] Latter on, the author describes how thousands of them would be made prisoners and then sold as slaves.

An interesting characteristic of De Assis Moura?s work is his attempt to display the grandeur of the bandeirantes through a detailed description of the common features of the enterprise. In particular De Assis Moura concentrates on the bandeirantes? warfare issues and the day to day facts of their lives such as the food, the outfits, etc. He writes: ?the bandeirantes? used to tie a ribbon in their heads?they were a leather armour to be protected against the indigenous arrows (1914, 8). ?Their march used to be of two or three leagues during the first hours of the day. In the following hours they sought provisions?(1914, 8-9).? ?Their armament consisted on harquebus, sword and the indigenous slaves used arrows? (1914, 9).  ?Their food was carried by the slaves and consisted on farinha, salt, dry meat and alcohol? (1914, 10).[4]

The central conclusion of De Assis Moura?s work,  asserts that the bandeiras paulistas occupied vast zones of land under Portuguese authority and in this form the constitution of Brazil as a nation-state became secured. In relation to the bandeirantes contribution to ?Brazilian? culture, the author asserts: ?from their long period in the ?sertaneja? (the Certao zone) emerged a deep relation with the rural life, their adventurous souls will give a self initiative to their descendants. From the bandeirantes obedience to the army structure has flourished a spirit that respect the rule of law? (De Assis 1914, 12).[5]

We also visited the Universidade do Sao Paulo (USP)to meet Professor Joa Manuel Montero an scholar expert on colonial history and indigenous populations of Brazil. The meeting with Prof. Monteiro was an opportunity to contrast De Assis Moura?s racial and discriminatory approach to the bandeiras and to explore the salient role played by the indigenous people in such enterprises. Professor Monteiro stressed an interesting fact of the bandeiras: these journeys were developed by foot and not by fluvial means. Therefore, the bandeiras depended on local guides that were precisely indigenous people that had previously been taken as prisoners by the bandeirantes. This argument became central for my own approach to the bandeiras. In particular, I became interested in the impact of such enterprises on the indigenous civilisations of the XVII century and in the contribution of those communities to the identity and cultural formation of today's Brazil.

In Sao Paulo we spent time walking throughout the city. The darkness of the Paulistan Avenue reflected the energy-supply crisis that Brazil is currently facing.[6] Brazilians are trying to overcome this crisis with creative responses to save energy: gas butane lamps, neighbours formed groups to watch T.V., etc. We also explored the Japanese neighbourhood of Liberdade, the infinite urban subway, the downtown immense streets and avenues. Our visit to the PARLATINO (Latin American Parlament) in the Memorial Latino Americano brought to my mind Eduardo Galeano?s work, ?The open veins of Latin America? that seemed to be so accurately represented in a sculpture placed in the middle of the Memorial?s plaza.

We left the city of Sao Paulo by night leading to the south in direction to Foz do Iguazu (Iguazu Falls). Our bandeira followed during 11hrs the highway named ?Raposo Tavares?. We arrived to the Brazilian City of Foz do Iguazu. During the travel we had a reencounter with the Spanish language as we met Paraguayan people.

We arrived to Foz do Iguacú at midnight and we experienced a stressful situation when our bus stopped in the middle of the Ponte de Amizade (Friendship Bridge) over the Paraná River. In the other side of this bridge is located the Paraguayan city Ciudad del Este and as in many border points in the region it has been a conflictive zone. We were there, three young Latin Americans with our huge backpacks in the middle of nowhere. We just maintained the calm and walked. At the end nothing happen to us but we felt real danger.

Iguazu falls are situated in the State of Paraná on the Iguazú River and the border between Argentina and Brazil. These water falls lie 19 kilometres upstream from the confluence of the Iguazú River with the Alto Paraná River[7]. In this point converge three cities: Foz do Iguacú in Brazil, Puerto Iguazú in Argentina and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. The most spectacular part of the falls was the Garganta do Diabo, that is a 28 kilometre long gorge.* We had the opportunity to see white face bats, Toucan birds, parrots and hundred of butterflies.

[1] Free translation from Portuguese.

[2] Free translation from Portuguese.

[3] Free translation from Portuguese.

[4] Free translation from Portuguese.

[5] Free translation from Portuguese.

[6] The crisis has already negative impacts on the country and per capita GNP.

[7] The information that I present from now on was quoted directly from different sources (e.g. our guides, information brochures that I collected during the travel, etc). I decided that in my journal I would try to use information provided by common sources (avoiding ?academic? references) or by what people told me or informed me about the places that we were visiting. I was particularly interested in giving a space to what common men, women and children say and believe. I also use information that I collected in museums, in the streets, in memorials, and from Ben Box and Mick Day. Brazil Footprint Guide. Second Edition. From now on I will use in the text * to mark my sources.