CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — ^PIERSON 



189 



Oh. what a punk barbecue!)" Paulo stopped, and asked 

 us who had said that. We told him we didn't know ; that 

 we liad been talking and hadn't been paying attention. 

 Paulo then yelled at the man he thought had yelled at 

 him and gave him a good tongue lashing. Even then he 

 wasn't satisfied and went to find the soldado to tell the 

 fellow to keep quiet. Later on, there was some confusion 

 at the polls because there were two voters of our party 

 with the same name and the opposition was going to deny 

 one of them the right to vote. There also was a heated 

 discussion between Luiz, who's for us, and Affonso who 

 votes with the opposition. Luiz accused Affonso of hiding 

 the titulo *" of one of his nieces who wanted to vote for 

 the men of the other party. Luiz said that Affonso's 

 party was always doing things like that and there would 

 have to be a stop put to It. He said he and his friends 

 were not fools to be taken in by such tricks. There was 

 a lot of shouting around and waving of arms before they 

 got it settled. If there had been a fight, it would have 

 been some fight, becau.se a lot of people were all excited. 

 Finally, Affonso left, talking back over his shoulder. Luiz 

 followed him, shouting at him loudly. As they went up 

 the street, a friend of Luiz's called to him to turn back. 

 He didn't want any trouble. If Luiz's friend hadn't done 

 that, I think there would have been a fight. At one time, 

 while this was going on, Luiz passed in front of me. I 

 moved over to one side riglit away, for if any bullets were 

 going to fly, I didn't want to stop one. 



At 5 : 40, the polls closed and the urn was sealed and 

 taken to Boa Vista. It was quite a day. 



RACE KELATIONS 



As has been indicated, persons from the three 

 basic races have long shared the local habitat. 

 The colonizing European, especially of Portuguese 

 origin, first came into the area, which had previ- 

 ously been inhabited by indigenous Indians, 

 probably some time in the late sixteenth century, 

 and subsequently there were imported into the 

 community many Indians from other regions. 

 For a long time, whites, Indians, and Indian-white 

 mixed-bloods lived here in intimate contact until 

 eventually the Indian, as both a biological and a 

 cultural entity, was completely, or almost com- 

 pletely, absorbed. 



Some decades after the whites began to settle 

 in the area, the first Africans were imported into 

 the community. As early as 1780, according to a 

 listing of the population, made in that year for 

 the Governor General, there were in the local par- 

 ish 335 Negro slaves. Of the 90 heads of free 

 families listed on the rolls as at that time living 

 in the community, 61 percent owned slaves. One 



' Registration slip presented by each voter before voting. 



of the leading citizens owned 85, or slightly more 

 than one-fourth of the total. Two captains of 

 militia owned, respectively, 22 and 17 slaves, 

 another officer of lesser rank owned 14 and a vicar 

 owned 13. Another man owned 32 slaves and two 

 women owned 20 and 16, respectively. Three fam- 

 ilies owned one slave each, nine families owned two 

 slaves each, and four families owned three slaves 

 each. The other heads of families each owned 

 from one to nine slaves, the average being slightly 

 less than four. 



In the local community, as elsewhere in Brazil, 

 the development of personal relations between the 

 slave, on the one hand, and the master and his fam- 

 ily, on the other, tended to undermine the formal 

 relationship. The godfather, for instance, of an 

 elderly man now living in the village, is remem- 

 bered as "a father to his slaves." When the decree 

 of 1888 set free all slaves not yet manumitted in 

 Brazil, "not a single one left his fazenda; all 

 stayed with him and continued to work as before." 

 At his death, he left all his property, including 

 land and livestock, to his slaves. 



Local villagers remember a former slave who, 

 after abolition, became a person of considerable 

 prominence in the community. "He was esteemed 

 by young and old," remarked a village leader. 

 "He knew how to shoe horses, to make bricks, to 

 cut hair and to play the violdo." The chapel of 

 the Santa Cruz in the village was built by this man 

 and the first festa to be held there was organized 

 by him. 



In the present population, the white contribu- 

 tion is the most evident, the number of persons who 

 not only are considered white but who also are pre- 

 dominantly white by anthropological criteria, be- 

 ing clearly in the majority. Many individuals, in 

 skin color, hair texture, and the formation of lips 

 and nose, give evidence of European origin alone ; 

 while the number of individuals who appear to be 

 of relatively pure African descent is quite small 

 and no person who was observed appeared to be of 

 pure Indian origin. 



At the same time, casual observation of the 

 population affords indisputable evidence of the 

 operation over a considerable period of time of 

 the process of amalgamation, involving all of the 

 three basic races. In the physical characteristics 

 of many individuals who are predominantly white, 

 there are observable slight, moderate, or even quite 



