CRUZ DAS ALMA&: A BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — PIERSON 



185 



At least so far as political activity outside the 

 community is concerned, graft is locally con- 

 sidered to be inseparable from it. "Wlien they 

 handle so much money," explained a young farmer, 

 "they certainly would take out enough for them- 

 selves. That's why they scrap so hard to get into 

 office." "A man goes into the government thin 

 and hungry," remarked a villager, "and he comes 

 out fat. It's like an invemada (a pasture to fat- 

 ten cattle) . The politicians get in to fatten them- 

 selves up."' A local official remarked of a villager : 



Antonio went to Boa Vista to get a license to drive a 

 truck. Tliey told him it would cost 700 cruzeiros, besides 

 the reijular fee and the revenue stamps. That's nothing 

 but graft. But if you don't pay, they will flunk you when 

 you take your driver's examination, and you'll never get a 

 license. So I went over to Boa Vista. You know our 

 party won the last election here but we lost It in the 

 miaiicipio as a whole. You have to be careful. If those 

 fellows in Boa Vista turn against you, you don't get a 

 thing and then you lose out here, too. So I went to see 

 a man I know there. He told them to let me have it for 

 300 cruzeiros. Politics are mighty dirty ; they are really 

 dirty. If those fellows still make my man pay that much, 

 what won't they do to others? 



A vocabulary has emerged to refer to certain 

 behavior ordinarily considered to be attached to 

 political activities, especially those outside the local 

 community. Among these terms and phrases are 

 hajular (to flatter someone in order to obtain a 

 favor from him) ; and fazer cambalacho and fazer 

 tramoia poUtica, both of which mean "to play 

 dirty politics." Such behavior runs counter to 

 the local mores, which lay a definite premium upon 

 sincerity and honesty. 



The executive branch of the State government is 

 headed by a governor who appoints secretaries to 

 assist him in discharging matters related to 

 finance, public security, justice, roads and rail- 

 ways, agriculture, education, public health, indus- 

 try, commerce, labor, and public works. The leg- 

 islative branch is at present composed of 64 depu- 

 tados, each of whom is elected from the State at 

 large to represent 100,000 inhabitants. 



The State of Sao Paulo is divided into 369 

 nvunicipios, each of which is somewhat comparable 

 to a county in the United States, although there 

 are significant differences. A municipio consists 

 of a town of varying size, together with the im- 

 mediately surrounding territory. The town, re- 

 gardless of the number of its inhabitants, is called 



a cidade (literally, city) and has no corporate 

 existence apart from the wumicipio. The latter 

 invariably bears its name. The executive officer 

 of the municipio is called a prefeito. A caviara 

 de vereojdores^ composed of 13 members in the 

 mwnieipio of which the community under study is 

 a part, acts as a local legislative body, over whose 

 acts, however, the prejeito exercises veto power. 

 The number of vereadores depends upon the popu- 

 lation of the municipiv, one being elected for each 

 2,000 inhabitants, with an extra member should 

 the total be an even number. The mimicipio in 

 which the community under study is located cov- 

 ers about 300 square miles and its sede (seat) is a 

 town of about 5,000 inhabitants. 



The ■municipio is divided into distritos de paz, 

 each centering about a smaller population nucleus 

 which is always called a vila, even though it may 

 range in size from a small hamlet to a large town. 

 The distrito differs considerably from the town- 

 ship to which it sometimes is compared, the prin- 

 cipal variation being that its existence is due to 

 the presence of a population nucleus in the rrmini- 

 cipio other than the larger town which is the seat 

 of the municipio. It also varies in the fact that 

 the area immediately surrounding the vila is con- 

 sidered to be related, for political purposes, di- 

 rectly to it, and only indirectly to the municipio^ 

 a relation which is symbolized by the further fact 

 that every distrito bears the name of the vila which 

 is its center. 



Cruz das Almas is the seat of a distrito, of which 

 there are four in the local municipio. A sub-pre- 

 feito, named by and directly responsible to the 

 prefeito. acts as the principal executive officer. 

 During the period of time the village was under 

 observation, however, this office was vacant and 

 the local fiscal, whose usual obligation is that of 

 collecting fees payable to the local government, 

 acted instead. 



The governor, a vice governor, the deputados, 

 the prefeitos and the vereadores are all elected for 

 a term of 4 years. 



The State is divided into 139 comarcas, or judi- 

 cial districts, which may or may not correspond, in 

 a given case, to a municipio. In each distrito is 

 a juiz de pas whose responsibilities include settling 

 small disputes such as those over the boundary 

 lines of properties and presiding at civil wed- 

 ding ceremonies. 



