CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — PIERSON 



193 



tliereby evoked, however, could well be expressed 

 in the phrase, "Well, what of it?" 



The relative absence of comment upon these 

 cases is probably due to the relative absence of 

 class differentiation in the population. In other 

 parts of Brazil, where class distinctions are more 

 marked, a definite line is drawn by white members 

 of the upper classes at marriage with a person from 

 the other end of the color scale; just as a line is 

 drawn, and probably largely for the same reason, 

 at marriages between individuals from the extreme 

 limits of the class scale. The descendants of the 

 old, once proud, families that still live in the com- 

 munity are now reduced in condition to the point 

 where educationally, and otherwise culturally, they 

 are in no way superior, but even sometimes in- 

 ferior, to persons from families of more himible 

 origin. As the class line has disappeared in the 

 community, the discrimination which is based in 

 class (Pierson, 1942), and in cultural valuations 

 identified with class, is also disappearing. Mem- 

 ories of the once slave status of the Negro are 

 becoming dimmer with the passage of time. The 

 former association, in the minds of the whites, of 

 low status with dark color, is thus also disappear- 

 ing. The difficult economic struggle in which all 

 members of the community share, tends to make 

 the individual's personal competence more and 

 more the primary criterion of his status. 



A case reported in the community is illuminat- 

 ing in this regard. A villager recalls that several 

 years ago a cousin of his father, who had been a 

 high official of the State of Sao Paulo, objected 

 strenuously to his daughter marrying a soldado 

 da forqa publica (member of the military police) 

 who was also a mulatto. "At the table one day," 

 the villager relates, "the girl became obstinate and 

 finally blurted out that she would marry the man, 

 whether her father wanted her to, or not. Livid 

 with rage, he got up and shot her through the 

 heart and then killed himself." "It was his pride," 

 explained the villager. "His daughter wouldn't 

 obey him. And, besides, he had been a high offi- 

 cial of the State and his daughter wanted to marry 

 a man who was only a soldado.'''' The fact that 

 the local resident laid emphasis upon the threat- 

 ened disobedience of a daughter and the modest 

 station of her suitor, rather than upon the race 

 or color of the latter, reveals the actual character 

 of the racial situation. 



The incident would seem to indicate that cases 

 of opposition of parents to the marriage of a child, 

 an opposition which at first glance would seem 

 to be on racial or color grounds, need to be anal- 

 yzed further to discover the actual, rather than 

 the apparent, motives involved. Persons from 

 the United States, accustomed from birth to a dif- 

 ferent racial situation, are sometimes led to see 

 evidences of racial, or color, discrimination where 

 little, if any, exists. In a given case, the dis- 

 crimination may be real and it may be directed 

 toward a person of color; but the hypothesis that 

 the motives involved spring primarily from racial, 

 or even color, variations needs to be proved. Of 

 her husband's white brother, for instance, a white 

 woman in the village said, "His mother didn't 

 want him to marry Rita. But it wasn't because 

 she was a mulatto. His mother just didn't like 

 Rita's ways. She didn't think she was the kind 

 of a girl who would make a good wife for her son." 

 "My brother's first wife," said a white woman in 

 the local communit}', "was a black. She had 

 kinkj' hair. She'd comb it and comb it to try to 

 straighten it. She'd put a hairpin here and a 

 hairpin there. But still it kinked. Yes, she was 

 a black. Everyone admitted that. But she was 

 also pretty, very pretty. And she was a hard 

 worker, too. She even knew how to crochet. She 

 could sing. She certainly was a mighty good 

 woman. She was 'of fine cloth.' " 



At the same time, there is a tendency in the local 

 community, as elsewhere in Brazil, to marry a 

 person who is as light as possible. As has been 

 indicated, white color still carries prestige, while 

 dark color has long been associated with low 

 status. For generations the black was the slave 

 and the white man the master and the memory of 

 this situation has not yet completely disappeared. 



In the local community, however, this tendency 

 is easily altered. "When Joao," remarked a white 

 woman of her black husband, "wanted to marry 

 me, my older brother, who was married and living 

 away from home, asked me to come see him and 

 he said, 'You want to look well at that man's 

 color before you marry him.' Then I said to him, 

 'Did you look well at the face of your wife before 

 you married her?' His wife, you know, is black. 

 And he laughed." "My Aunt Isaura over at Para- 

 tinga," said a young farm woman of a white 

 relative, "married a black. That was around 8 



