Backlands (14 page)

The Portuguese, on the other hand, give us our characteristic aristocratic features and link us to the vibrant intellectual heritage of the Celts. These traits are quite distinct, despite the complicated melting pot from which we emerge.

Thus we arrive, albeit imperfectly, at the three essential components of our human history. We are well acquainted with the differing environmental and historical conditions, whether adverse or favorable, that have influenced our development. In considering the complex process of this interweaving of anthropological types marked by variations in physical and psychological attributes and influenced by extreme variations in climate and sometimes opposite living conditions, we must admit that we have not furthered our knowledge. We have written about all the possible solutions of a complex formula, but we have not identified all the unknowns.

It is not enough, in this case, to apply Broca’s abstract and rigid anthropological law to a comparison of the Bantu Negro, the Guarani Indian, and the white man. It does not account for the factors that may lessen the influence of the more numerous or stronger race, or the causes that may undo or reinforce that influence. Unlike those countries whose racial mix is white and black, we must consider three diverse populations that are intimately influenced by the vicissitudes of their histories and the climates in which they live. It is a rule that simply helps us decide which questions to ask. It changes, as all rules do, under the pressure of objective facts. But even if someone tried to apply it without regard to the data, it would not simplify the problem; it would only betray a lack of intellectual rigor on the part of the researcher.

This is easy to demonstrate. If we consider the three core elements of our race and their innate capacities, we can disregard any extraneous information. We soon observe that the result of the union of two races does not produce a third race in which the characteristics of each in this binary union are evenly distributed. On the contrary, the inevitable ternary combination results in at least three other binary ones. The original racial elements are not aggregated nor are they blended. Rather, they reproduce themselves, dividing into an equal number of subforms that then take their place and produce a confused mix of races, the most characteristic results of which are the mulatto, the
mameluco
or
curiboca,
and the
cafuzo
.
²
The initial focus of the investigations is diverted by the discovery that reproduction, not reduction, occurs in this racial mixture. As study of these racial subcategories displaces research on the originating race, the task is made more complex and more difficult because one is confronted with the innumerable racial manifestations that result, depending on the variations in admixture of blood.

The Brazilian, as an abstract type that we seek to define, can only be viewed as a human type in progress, the result of an extraordinarily complex mixing of races. In theory he would be the light-brown-skinned type, the product of successive crossings of the mulatto, the
curiboca,
and the
cafuzo.
However, it is unrealistic, if not absurd, to insist on the reality of such a type. The history of each region in Brazil varies greatly, as does the climate. The different racial types react differently to each of these factors. The rates of miscegenation also vary greatly by region. In colonial times racial mixing occurred because of armed invasions. From that time to the present day it has also been the result of the arrival of new populations. It is a process that has never been consistent.

This aside, these rapid observations will serve to explain the divergence of opinions that prevail among our anthropologists. Because of the complexity of ethnographic research in Brazil, our anthropologists have rejected the painstaking task of sorting out complex conditions and have given more attention to the description of the preponderant characteristics of different ethnic groups. While these factors are undeniably important, the emphasis placed upon them has been taken to extreme lengths, provoking a proliferation of semi-science veiled in wild and futile fantasies. There has been a recent excess of subjectivity by writers who have handled serious matters with scandalous irresponsibility. They began by ignoring a large part of the empirical data offered by environmental and historical circumstances. Then they proceeded to write fiction on the theme of the three races, inventing crossings and intermarriage according to their personal whims. Out of all of this fanciful meta-chemistry came mythology.

Some of these would-be anthropologists began by claiming, with dubious authority, that the physical environment has played a secondary role. Moreover, they claimed the almost complete extinction of the aborigine, as well as a diminishing influence of the African since the abolition of slavery. These same investigators predicted the ultimate supremacy of the white race on the grounds that it is stronger and more numerous in population. They depicted the mulatto as a diluted form of the Negro race, and in turn alleged that the aborigine features of the
caboclo
were being progressively erased.
³

Others are even more expansive in their fantastic speculation. They inflate the influence of the aborigine and construct theories that fall apart at the slightest nudge of criticism—fantasies that are expressed in both rhyme and meter, and intrude on the scientific domain with the rhythmic cadence of the verses of our romantic poet Gonçalves Dias.

Others remain more grounded. They exaggerate the influence of the African, who is capable, they assert, of resisting absorption by the dominant race. They hail the mulatto as the most characteristic type of our ethnic subcategories.

In summary, the many opinions expressed on this subject have been diverse and of dubious validity.

We believe that the confusion is due to the focus of these studies on a single ethnic type, when in fact there are many. We do not have a unified race. We may never have one.
⁴
We are predestined to create a historic race, providing that our nation remains autonomous long enough to produce it. In this regard we are inverting the natural order: Our biological evolution depends on social progress.

We are condemned to civilization. Either we progress or we will become extinct. That much is certain.

It is not just the heterogeneity of our ancestral heritage that suggests this. Other equally important conditions reinforce it—the vast and diverse physical environment of our country combined with a continuous flux of historical situations, which are in large part shaped by the environment. This is a subject that we must briefly consider.

Refuting the opinion of those who would place the hot countries at thirty degrees latitude, Brazil cannot by a long stretch be included in that category. Such a limitation is misleading from both an astronomical and a geographical perspective. Not only does it deviate from commonly accepted demarcations, this definition overlooks the natural topography that attenuates or reinforces meteorological conditions, allowing equatorial conditions to exist at high altitudes or temperate climates in the tropics. All climatology, within the broad parameters of general cosmological laws, tends to be influenced by the most proximate natural phenomena. A climate is like a physiological translation of a geographic condition. And defining it in this way we conclude that our country, by its very physical structure, is unlikely to have a uniform climate.

This is illustrated by the most recent results of meteorological research, which are the only reliable studies. These divide the country into three clearly distinct zones: the definitely tropical zone, which extends from the states of the North to southern Bahia, with average temperatures of twenty-six degrees centigrade; the temperate zone, extending from São Paulo to Rio Grande do Sul, through Paraná and Santa Catarina, between the fifteenth and twentieth isotherms; and, in between, the subtropical zone, stretching through the central and northern zones of some states, from Minas Gerais to Paraná.

Here the boundaries of three distinct habitats are clearly marked. However, even though they are clearly differentiated, there are additional characteristics that create diverse conditions within each zone. We will describe these in broad strokes.

The placement of Brazil’s mountain ranges, huge masses of upturned rock following the coast in a line perpendicular to the southeast, determines the primary traits of large expanses of territory that stretch to the east and express significant climatological differences. In fact, the climate of this region is entirely subordinate to geography and defies the laws that normally govern it. From the tropical zone on the Ecuadorian side, its astronomical charting by latitude cedes to perplexing secondary causes defined, in a rare anomaly, by longitude.

It is a well-known fact that the extensive strip of coastline that runs from Bahia to Paraíba presents more marked changes along the parallel to the east than along the meridian northward. The differences in climate and natural features that are imperceptible along the northern meridian are clearly marked along the parallel. All the way to the northernmost regions of the country, nature displays itself exuberantly in the lush forests that line the coast, so that at first glance a foreigner would believe this to be a huge region of fertile and pristine lands. Nonetheless, starting at the thirteenth parallel the forests shield vast strips of sterile land, with barren tracts that reveal the rigors of a climate in which the exaggeratedly extreme thermometric and hygrometric readings vary in inverse ratio.

A short journey west from any point on the coast leads to the barrens. The charm of a beautiful illusion is broken. Nature becomes impoverished; the great forests are stripped of their foliage; the mountains abdicate their dominion over the landscape; gullies and deserts transform the backlands into a parched and barbaric land, with its intermittent streams and bare promontories projecting out in infinite succession, creating a huge stage for the tragic drama of the droughts.

The contrast is shocking. A scant one hundred miles away are regions with completely opposite characteristics supporting entirely different conditions for life. The desert takes one by surprise. Certainly, those waves of settlers who in the first two centuries of colonization ventured west over those northern territories on their way to the interior must have encountered more serious obstacles than rough seas and craggy mountains as they crossed the bone-dry scrublands. The failure of the Bahians, and before them the Paulistas,
⁵
to penetrate the interior, is a striking case in point.

The same, however, does not apply to the tropics to the South. There, the geological warp of the earth, the matrix of its interesting morphogenesis, is uniform over vast expanses of the interior. It creates the same favorable conditions, the same flora, and similarly abundant natural features in a climate much improved by the altitude.

The imposing bulwark of the granite cordillera rises perpendicular from the sea, and its inner slopes fall gently away in vast, undulating plains. It forms the steep, sharply etched escarpment of the plateaus.

The plateaus unveil even more opulent and expansive landscapes that are free of the imposing bulk of the mountains. The land complies with that “manageability of nature” of which Buckle speaks, and the warm, temperate climate matches the admirable benignity of the climes of southern Europe. Here, the southeast wind does not predominate as it does farther north. The northwest wind rolls in from the highlands of the interior and sweeps over the vast area spanning from the plateaus of Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro, through São Paulo, all the way to Paraná.

While we have done little more than briefly sketch these broad distinctions, we have already begun to illustrate the essential differences between South and North, which are completely distinct regions due to their meteorological conditions, their topography, and the variable transitions between the backlands and the coast. We will go into more detailed analysis that will reveal certain aspects to underscore our point. We will, however, focus only on the most salient examples to avoid redundant explanations.

We have seen in the preceding pages that the southeast wind is the prevailing wind on the eastern seaboard but is substituted in the southern states by a northwest wind and in the North by the northeaster. These wind currents in turn disappear in the heart of the highland plateaus and are taken over by a strong cold front similar to the pampero of the Argentine pampa that sweeps into Mato Grosso and triggers wild thermometric variations.
⁶
This weather phenomenon contributes to the instability of the climate on the mainland and causes harsh conditions in the central plateaus that differ from what we have sketched above.

Indeed, natural conditions in Mato Grosso substantiate Buckle’s extreme claims. The region is unlike any other and has distinct features. All its savage beauty, its unimaginable exuberance, when married to the extreme harshness of the elements—qualities the eminent thinker hastily generalized and used to characterize Brazil as a whole—manifest themselves in astonishing displays of natural beauty. Even if contemplated with the practiced eye of the naturalist who is not inclined to hyperbole, this landscape illustrates the rich diversity of Brazil’s natural environment.

There is no comparison to the play of opposites in this region. At first glance it seems completely benign: the land in love with life, fecund nature reigning triumphant in a succession of bright, calm days, the soil in bloom with vegetation so fantastic and fertile it appears to come from the imagination, irrigated by rivers flowing to all points of the compass. But this lush peacefulness paradoxically hides the seeds of summer storms, which erupt in an unchanging rhythm and are preceded by the same warning signs. They fall on the region with the finality of natural law. It is hard to describe them, but we will try to give an idea of what they are like.