In the cross fire: Italian immigrants between the phrygian cap and the cloth coffee strainer

Author(s)

Melina Roberto Rovina

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2012-05-03

Examining board members

Michael McDonald Hall; Sidney Chalhoub; Luigi Biondi

• Advisor: Michael McDonald Hall

Abstract

This dissertation derives from a discomfort about how Italian immigrants were received by São Paulo society in the 1890s. While the assimilationist approach in prevailing historiography treats the integration of Italians in Brazilian society as a frictionless process, this work intend to demonstrate that, on the contrary, there was much tension between Brazilians and Italians in the first Republican years. Starting from varied historical sources discovered during three years of research, this work presents the reasons for resentment by nationals toward immigrants, the articulation of the Jacobin movement against foreigners, the Republican political debates that affected the reception of Italians and, finally, the confrontation of two ethics present in Brazilian society that have positioned the debates about Italian immigration right in the "crossfire" of the dispute. In addition, the reader can understand how Italian immigrants saw the aversion toward foreigners, and how they organized themselves in the face of the quarrelsome political and social scenario (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/04199-0 - Anti-italian moviments in São Paulo
• Grantee: Melina Roberto Rovina
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master