■CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — ^PIERSON 



101 



forms emerge and old forms change — that these 

 two elements of the local situation may, witli ad- 

 vantage, be considered together. 



ISOLATION AND CONTACT 



The principal contact with the outside world 

 used to be by way of the tropeiros who lived in the 

 village and drove tropas to nearby towns, or to Sao 

 Paulo or Santos, or made long journeys west and 

 south to purchase horses, mules, or burros to be 

 driven to other parts of the State and sold. A few 

 of the experiences of one of these men have already 

 been cited. ( See Transportation, p. 94. ) An older 

 man in the village recalls similar experiences : 



When I was a boy, I lived in the village with my grand- 

 father. He often let tropeiros stay overnight at his house. 

 One of them took a liking to me. When I was 16 years 

 old, I too became a tropeiro. 



There are two kinds of tropas: The "loose" tropa and 

 the "saddled" tropa. The "loose" tropa is a bunch of 

 horses, mules, or burros which is driven some place to 

 be sold. The "saddled" tropa is a pack train. I always 

 drove a "loose" tropa. In the first bunch, there were 64 

 animals. I bought them in Itapetininga and sold them 

 in Cabreuva, Jundial, Campinas, Araras, and Limeira. 

 Later, I sold animals also in Braganga, Amparo, and 

 Pirassununga. I made friends with many dealers and 

 they gave me credit. Sometimes I was able to buy as 

 many as a hundred head at a time. 



Without a tropa, I could make the trip to Itapetininga 

 on horseback in 3 days, traveling about 10 leguas a day. 

 It took S or 10 days to come back with the tropa. It was 

 easy to fiud a place to spend the night. Sometimes we 

 would stop in a town, but most of the time we stayed at 

 farmhouses. A few times we had to pitch a tent. Some 

 of my trips lasted more than 30 days. On every one I took 

 two or three pack animals of my own which carried food, 

 a tent, and everything else I needed. I also had along an 

 assistant, a pcao, a man who could handle any burro, no 

 matter how wild he might be. There was also a boy with 

 us. We carried many messages. Sometimes people gave 

 us letters in sealed envelopes to deliver along the way. 



At that time, there were four other tropeiros living in 

 the village who drove "loose" tropas. Five other men had 

 pack trains with which they hauled stuff from the nearest 

 point on the railroad. Jly father had a pack train. He 

 owned a store in the village. He would go to Santos to 

 get stuff and bring it all the way here. At that time, the 

 Government kept up the road for tropas and oxcarts from 

 Santos to Itu. Burros took cotton to Sao Paulo in 3 days. 

 Each burro carried two sacks and the price was 1 milreis 

 and 500 reis a burro per day. Many tropeiros sang as 

 they went along. I also sang but I don't remember the 

 songs any more. 



As has been indicated, mobility is still relatively 

 low.^°- Although the city of Sao Paulo is only 2 

 or 3 hours away by truck and a railway passes a 

 few miles to the south and "through" roads run a 

 few miles to either side of the community, contact 

 with the outside world is still quite limited. The 

 members of the community consequently live a 

 rather self-contained and integrated life with 

 little intrusion from the outside. At the same time, 

 there is some contact with the outer world by way 

 of occasional vists to neighboring towns and, more 

 rarely, to Sao Paulo ; by way of a few persons who 

 have visited briefly other communities or remained 

 away a few months or years before returning; by 

 way of new residents who from time to time have 

 moved into the community from other parts of 

 the State or, in a few cases, from other parts of 

 Brazil or from other countries ; by way of pilgrims 

 I^assing through on their way to the shrine at 

 Pirapora (see Romarias, p. 175) ; and, to a limited 

 extent, by way of letters, the printed page, and 

 the radio. 



Of the persons living on 17 farms visited, as has 

 been indicated, few have ever been to Sao Paulo. 

 One woman, 38 years old, has been there twice in 

 her lifetime. "Sao Paulo is too crowded," she says. 

 "You get dizzy from it all. Us folks from the 

 country like it quieter." One family spent a night 

 in Sao Paulo while moving to the community from 

 iMinas Gerais. A grandmother recalls her father 

 taking her to the city when she was a small girl ; 

 her 31-year-old daughter-in-law, who lives in the 

 same house, has never been there. One man, 37 

 years old, has been to Sao Paulo four times. The 

 midwife goes there "once in a while," when she is 

 unable longer "to resist the pleading of my rela- 

 tives"; but, she says, "I go one day and come back 

 the next. I lose my appetite there. I can't stand 

 the city." One man interviewed visits Sao Paulo 

 "almost every year." 



Alost of the farmers and a few of their wives 

 occasionally visit one or more of the nearby towns, 

 like Boa Vista, Piracema, and Paratinga, each 

 quite rural in character, with a population of from 

 900 to 5,000, and more infrequently someone visits 

 briefly a similar town somewhat further away. 

 JNIany men and most women, however, visit only 

 their relatives, compadres,^" and other acquaint- 



"« See Mobility, p. 27. 

 ™ See Compadrio, p. 142. 



