Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2011 Thomas E. Skidmore Prize, this new translation of Paulo Fontes's
Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo is a detailed social history of the millions who migrated from Brazil's Northeast to São Paulo.
Trade Review"Fontes offers an unprecedented closeup account of Brazil’s most crucial yet understudied mass movements of people: the migration of thousands of impoverished rural northeasterners to the country’s burgeoning industrial centers in the mid-20th century. . . . By centering the complexity of this important working population, Fontes contributes a fresh perspective on the vital processes of urbanization and labor activism that defined and continues to shape this crucial South American powerhouse. Highly recommended." -- B. A. Lucero * Choice *
"
Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo offers critical tools for understanding not just the understudied period of migration it takes as its subject. It should encourage us to take seriously the continuation of the cycles of poverty, unemployment, and uneven development—often stratified along lines of class and race—that drive ordinary people to leave behind everything they have ever known in search of something better." -- Baird Campbell * Cosmologics *
"[T]his is an outstanding book that enriches our understanding of the Latin American working class during the Cold War era.... [T]he masterly incorporation of the voices of the many men and women who worked and lived in São Miguel provides a genuinely bottom-up approach and a rich social history." -- Àngela Vergara * Journal of Latin American Studies *
"A superb study of migration, adaptation, the interplay of ethnic and class identity, popular politics, and a particular pattern of postwar development in São Paulo. To begin with, the methodology is both solid and creative. . . . Its bottom-up approach, street-level perspective, and multi-faceted analysis enhances our understanding of issues usually discussed in the abstract." -- José C. Moya * Canadian Journal of History *
"More than a careful historiographic investigation of Sao Paulo from the 1940s to the 1960s,
Migration and the Making of Industrial Sao Paulo is a solid theoretical-methodological construct, mandatory reading for those social scientists and intellectuals of diverse academic fields who wish to better acquaint themselves with Brazil and to investigate the vicissitudes and legacies of those who built the great cities of Latin America." -- Nadya Araujo Guimaraes * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsForeword / Barbara Weinstein vii
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1. A Cardboard Suitcase and a Backpack: Northeastern Migration to São Paulo in the 1950s 15
2. Land of the Northeasterners: Migration, Urbanization, and Factory Work in São Miguel Paulista 48
3. Worker Community and Everyday Life: "Becoming Northeastern" in São Paulo 79
4. The Right to Practice Politics: Parties and Political Leadership in São Miguel Paulista 131
5. Workers and the Neighborhood: Social Movements and the Struggle for Autonomy 178
Conclusion 208
Notes 211
Bibliography 249
Index 271
