somanlu jul dez 2006.pmd - Eventos - Ufam

“Soldiers” and citizens in the rainforest: Brazilian rubber tappers...
On 18 June, 1944, a crowd of politicians, businessmen, military and church
officials and foreign diplomats gathered at the headquarters of the Associação
Comercial do Amazonas – ACA in the capital city of Manaus in a special ceremony
to commemorate the seventy-third anniversary of the trade organization. The
association congregated the small, tightly-knit business leadership of Manaus involved
in the marketing of forest products, the forwarding of credit and merchandise to
producers, and the import-export trade. Since its inception, ACA was an elite male
realm where political deals were conducted, financial transactions sealed, and social
relations cultivated. After exchanging pleasantries and handshakes, the invitees listened
to the inspirational words of Álvaro Maia, the federally appointed governor in the
state of Amazonas, and ACA President Waldemar Pinheiro, who praised the free
market (ACA, 1945, p. 47).
With the advent of World War II, the headquarters of ACA buzzed with
anticipation as the newfound demand for Amazonian rubber by the Allies portended
better times. The region’s economy had contracted sharply after 1913, when Asian
plantation latex undercut the monopoly held for decades by wild Amazonian rubber.
Depleted export tax revenues – a primary source of local state income under the
decentralized political system of the Republic (1889-1930) – had left public servants
and militias without pay, public services in shambles, and foreign creditors hollering.
Many of the commercial forwarding firms (aviadores), unable to recover debt from
the insolvent operators (seringalistas) of the rubber estates had gone bankrupt or
taken possession of the relatively valueless land as collateral for unpaid loans. The
federal government proved unwilling to bail out a region whose influence in national
politics had always been marginal, and valorization plans to artificially increase the
price of rubber failed. 1
Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas and the Brazilian Amazon’s second
largest city, contained a population of 100,000 in 1940. The city’s mercantile elite and
small middle class, suffering decades of economic downswing that followed the
bust, sought to salve their wounded self-esteem in the familiar comfort of religious
fervor, conservative mores, and traditional gender roles: even in the sweltering heat,
gentlemen would never dare dispense with jacket and tie and long pants in public;
“decent” women always wore long skirts and never pants – lest they face ridicule as
a “mulher-macho”. (PERES, 1984, p. 21, 40-43). Still, the modern architecture of
the Association’s newly constructed four-storied building emanated an air of self-
36 Somanlu, ano 6, n. 2, jul./dez. 2006